Potency of Sweet Soy Sauce as Vehicle for NaFeEDTA Fortificant: Effect of Fortified Sweet Soy Sauce Intake on Iron Bioavailability of Fortificant

In order to investigate potency of sweet soy sauce as vehicle for NaFeEDTA fortificant, the effect of sweet soy sauce intake on iron bioavailability of NaFeEDTA, was in vivo evaluated. The bioavailability was determined in Spague-Dawley rats using hemoglobin depletion-repletion method. Rats were iron depleted by feeding them iron-free diet. During the repletion period, iron-depleted rats were fed NaFeEDTA (0.35 mg Fe/day) for their iron source of diet, with sweet soy sauce as fortification vehicle. Volume of soy sauce intake was varied from 0.0 to 0.7 mL/day. FeSO4 center dot 7H(2)O (0.35 mg Fe/day, with H2O as vehicle) was used as reference standard. The bioavailability of iron was expressed as hemoglobin regeneration efficiency (HRE). The volume of soy sauce intake which resulted in good bioavailability was used for further study. The further study was done to evaluate the iron bioavailability of NaFeEDTA (dosage was varied from 0.175 to 1.4 mg Fe/day) with fixed volume of the fortification vehicle intake (0.2 mL/day). Sweet soy sauce and H2O were used as fortification vehicle, while FeSO 4.7H(2)O (0.35 mg Fe/day, with H2O as vehicle) was used as reference standard of fortificant. The data showed that sweet soy sauce has a good potency as fortification vehicle for NaFeEDTA. Intake of 0.2 mL of sweet soy sauce/day resulted in HRE of NaFeEDTA as high as HRE of standard FeSO4 center dot 7H(2)O. Furthermore, in compare with H2O vehicle, the soy sauce resulted for higher HRE, higher iron absorption, and higher iron retention, as well. It was found that increased intake of NaFeEDTA made HRE of NaFeEDTA, % A/I, and % R/I decreased.