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. 2020 Nov 3;8(12):6557-6567.
doi: 10.1002/fsn3.1945. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Identification of the prepared foods promising for dietary folate intake in Beijing, China

Md Shariful Islam  1 , Shahid Mehmood  1 , Chunyi Zhang  1 , Qiuju Liang  1
Affiliations

Identification of the prepared foods promising for dietary folate intake in Beijing, China

Md Shariful Islam et al. Food Sci Nutr. .

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze folate content and composition in foods consumed daily by Chinese people. The concentration of seven folate derivatives in sixty-four selected foods was determined by a liquid-chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry method. The total folate levels ranged from 0.28 to 129 µg/100 g fresh weight, with an average of 21.18 μg/100 g. The highest folate content was found in boiled egg yolk and waxy corn (>120 µg/100 g), abundant folate levels in cooked vegetables such as hot pepper, spinach, soybean sprout, stem lettuce, coriander, and broccoli (44-72 µg/100 g), and lowest in Coca Cola (0.28 µg/100 g). 5-Methyl-tetrahydrofolate was the major folate derivative in various foods, accounting for 72% of the total folates on average, with the highest being 90% in egg yolk. These data will enable estimation of the daily folate intake and allow dietary recommendations to improve folate status in humans.

Keywords: China; folate content; folate derivatives; folates; processed foods.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Principal component analysis based on concentration of the individual folate derivatives for various foods. Each point on the scatter plot represents a single food item; the food items are color‐coded with different symbols to indicate their clustered types. 10‐F‐FA, 10‐Formyl‐tetrahydrofolate; 5,10‐CH = THF, 5,10‐Methenyl‐tetrahydrofolate; 5‐F‐THF, 5‐Formyl‐tetrahydrofolate; 5‐M‐THF, 5‐Methyl‐tetrahydrofolate; DHF, dihydrofolate; FA, folic acid; THF, Tetrahydrofolate
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlation analysis among the individual folate derivatives and total folates of all selected foods. *, **, and *** represent the significance levels at p < .05, .01, and .001, respectively. 10‐F‐FA, 10‐Formyl‐tetrahydrofolate; 5,10‐CH = THF, 5,10‐Methenyl‐tetrahydrofolate; 5‐F‐THF, 5‐Formyl‐tetrahydrofolate; 5‐M‐THF, 5‐Methyl‐tetrahydrofolate; DHF, dihydrofolate; FA, folic acid; THF, Tetrahydrofolate
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