A Comparison of Retinyl Palmitate and Red Palm Oil β-Carotene as Strategies to Address Vitamin A Deficiency

Vitamin A deficiency continues to be an international public health problem with several important health consequences including blindness and overall increased rates of morbidity and mortality. To address this widespread issue, a series of strategies have been put into place from dietary diversification to supplementation and fortification programs. Retinyl palmitate has been used successfully for decades as a supplement as well as a way to fortify numerous foods, including vegetable oil, rice, monosodium glutamate, cereal flours and sugar. Recently, there has been rising interest in using a natural source of carotenoids, β-carotene from red palm oil (RPO), for fortification. Although RPO interventions have also been shown to effectively prevent Vitamin A deficiency, there are numerous challenges in using beta-carotene from RPO as a fortification technique. β-Carotene can induce significant changes in appearance and taste of the fortified product. Moreover, costs of fortifying with beta-carotene are higher than with retinyl palmitate. Therefore, RPO should only be used as a source of Vitamin A if it is produced and used in its crude form and regularly consumed without frying. Furthermore, refined RPO should be fortified with retinyl palmitate, not β-carotene, to ensure that there is adequate Vitamin A content.