ABSTRACT
The fat-soluble vitamins include vitamin A and the
provitamin A carotenoids, vitamins D, E, and K. As
knowledge rapidly expanded over the past 30 years
about the roles of the fat-soluble vitamins in metabo-
lism and maintenance of health, increased emphasis
has been placed on the development of analytical
techniques to quantify accurately these vitamins in
food and other biological matrices. Method develop-
ment has been energized by great consumer interest in
diet, health relationships, the publication of the new
Dietary Reference Intakes (1-3), the need to improve
food composition databanks, technology of food
processing, greater industry use of nutrient fortifica-
tion, the rapid growth of the supplement and func-
tional food market, and the need for accurate
analytical methods for regulatory use. Advancement
in analysis of the fat-soluble vitamins has been rapid
and extensive. Further, the need for high sample
output and cost considerations has led to the develop-
ment of excellent multianalyte methods that do not
sacrifice accuracy and precision. Since each fat-soluble
vitamin requires specific detection parameters because
of highly individual chemical properties, simultaneous
detection requires multiple detectors in series often
including programmable features and a high quality,
sensitive photodiode array (PDA) detector (4). We will
provide an overview in this chapter of currently
accepted approaches to the analysis of fat-soluble
vitamins in food.
