Impact of cooking on vitamin D-3 and 25(OH)D-3 content of pork products

Publication history: Accepted - 29 July 2022; Published online - 2 August 2022Little is known regarding the impact of cooking on vitamin D content in pork, despite meat being a major contributor to vitamin D intakes. This paper investigated the effect of household cooking (pan-fry/roast/grill/sous-vide/sauté), on the vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) concentration/retention in pork loin, mince and sausages. We hypothesised that vitamin D concentrations would be higher in cooked vs raw pork, and retention would differ between products. Cooking significantly increased vitamin D3 (+49 %) and 25(OH)D3 (+33 %) concentrations. All cooked loin vitamin D3 concentrations were significantly lower than mince/sausage. Vitamin D3 retention was > 100 % for all samples (102–135 %), except sauté mince (99 %) which still did not differ significantly from 100 % retention. Sous-vide cooking resulted in the highest vitamin D3 retention (135 %). Likely owing to water/fat loss, household cooking of pork results in favourable retention of vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D3. The type of pork product has greater influence than cooking method.This work was funded as part of a Department for the Economy (DfE; Northern Ireland) Co-operative Awards in Science and Technology (CAST) PhD studentship, supported by Devenish Nutrition Limited

Andromeda's Parachute: A Bright Quadruply Lensed Quasar at z = 2.377

We present Keck Cosmic Web Imager spectroscopy of the four putative images of the lensed quasar candidate J014710+463040 recently discovered by Berghea et al. The data verify the source as a quadruply lensed, broad absorption-line quasar having ${z}_{{\rm{S}}}=2.377\,\pm \,0.007$. We detect intervening absorption in the Fe ii λλ2586, 2600, Mg ii λλ2796, 2803, and/or C iv λλ1548, 1550 transitions in eight foreground systems, three of which have redshifts consistent with the photometric-redshift estimate reported for the lensing galaxy (z L ≈ 0.57). The source images probe these absorbers over transverse physical scales of ≈0.3–22 kpc, permitting assessment of the variation in metal-line equivalent width ${W}_{{\rm{r}}}$ as a function of sight-line separation. We measure differences in ${W}_{{\rm{r}},2796}$ of 50% over the same scales across the majority of sight-line pairs, while C iv absorption exhibits a wide range in ${W}_{{\rm{r}},1548}$ differences of ≈5%–80% within transverse distances of lesssim3 kpc. These spatial variations are consistent with those measured in intervening absorbers detected toward lensed quasars drawn from the literature, in which ${W}_{{\rm{r}},2796}$ and ${W}_{{\rm{r}},1548}$ vary by ≤20% in 35 ± 7% and 47 ± 6% of sight lines separated by 2 quadruply lensed systems for which all four source images are very bright (r = 15.4–17.7 mag) and are easily separated in ground-based seeing conditions. As such, it is an ideal candidate for higher-resolution spectroscopy probing the spatial variation in the kinematic structure and physical state of intervening absorbers

Improving vitamin D content in pork meat by UVB biofortification

Publication history: Accepted - 11 January 2023; Published online - 14 January 2023Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent worldwide and identification of alternative food-based strategies are urgently warranted. In two studies, 12-week old crossbred pigs (Duroc x (Large White x Landrace)) were exposed daily to narrowband UVB radiation for ∼10 weeks or control (no UVB exposure) until slaughter. In Study 1 (n = 48), pigs were exposed to UVB for 2 min and in Study 2 (n = 20), this duration was tripled to 6 min. All pigs were fed the maximum permitted 2000 IU vitamin D3/kg feed. Loin meat was cooked prior to vitamin D LC-MS/MS analysis. In Study 1, pork loin vitamin D3 did not differ between groups. Study 2 provided longer UVB exposure time and resulted in significantly higher loin vitamin D3 (11.97 vs. 6.03 μg/kg), 25(OH)D3 (2.09 vs. 1.65 μg/kg) and total vitamin D activity (22.88 vs. 14.50 μg/kg) concentrations, compared to control (P < 0.05). Pigs remained healthy during both studies and developed no signs of erythema. Biofortification by UVB radiation provides an effective strategy to further safely increase the naturally occurring vitamin D content of pork loin, alongside feed supplementationThis work was funded as part of a Department for the Economy (DfE) Co-operative Awards in Science and Technology (CAST) PhD studentship, supported by Devenish Nutrition Limited and Agri-Food Quest Competence Centre (AFQCC)

An empirical comparison of methods for measuring consumers’ willingness to pay

A valid procedure for measuring consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) is crucial in designing optimal pricing policies or for estimating demand for new products. Understanding potential sources of differences in WTP estimates that emerge from value elicitation studies constitutes an important step in research on how managers should estimate consumers’ WTP. This research presents an empirical analysis of two potential sources of differences and discusses possible means of mitigating them. We find substantial and significant differences between the WTP reported by subjects when payment of the stated price is real or hypothetical. Notwithstanding the dichotomy between real and hypothetical WTP, we find significant differences among the WTP estimates of a broad range of value elicitation methods. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006Willingness to pay (WTP), Measuring willingness to pay, Pricing,