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JOURNAL OF FOOD COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS

Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 19 (2006) 311320 www.elsevier.com/locate/jfca

Original Article

Nutrient retention in foods after earth-oven cooking compared to other forms of domestic cooking$ 2. Vitamins
Shailesh Kumara,, Bill Aalbersbergb
b

11 Cowin Close, Rowville, Vic. 3178, Australia Institute of Applied Sciences, University of the South Pacic, P.O. Box 1168, Suva, Fiji Received 6 April 2004; received in revised form 23 June 2005; accepted 27 June 2005

Abstract Effects of Pacic traditional style of cooking in an earth-oven1 on vitamin content of chicken, lamb chops, sh, cassava, taro and palusami2 were investigated. Retention of vitamins (retinol, b-carotenes, thiamin, riboavin, niacin and ascorbic acid) in earth-oven cooked samples was compared with the retention in microwaved and oven-roasted chicken and lamb chops, microwave-cooked sh, boiled cassava and taro, and steamed cooked palusami, the nutrient analyses of all of which were conducted during the course of this study. Retention of retinol ranged from 20% to 91% for all cooked samples. Generally higher retention of this vitamin was observed in microwave cooked samples whereas the lowest retentions were characteristic of earth-oven cooked samples. Retention of more than 100% was observed for b-carotenes in cooked palusami. There was low retention of thiamin and riboavin in most samples, with thiamin generally showing lower retention levels. Highest losses were usually observed with oven roasting, slightly more than the losses with earth-oven cooking. Microwave cooking caused the least loss of these two B vitamins. Niacin was quite stable to all the cooking methods with the retentions ranging from 63% to 95%. Retention values were comparable between similar samples cooked by different methods. Steam cooking was most detrimental to ascorbic acid in palusami. It caused a total loss of ascorbic acid from palusami upon cooking compared to earth-oven cooking after which 62% was retained in the palusami. Most ascorbic acid was retained in earth-oven cooked cassava (76%). r 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Earth-oven; Palusami; Thiamin; Riboavin; Retinol; b-carotene; Niacin; Ascorbic acid

Abbreviations: e/oven: earth-oven; HPLC: high performance liquid chromatograph; L/chops: lamb chops; m/wave: microwave; na: not analyzed; o/roast: oven roast Corresponding author. Tel.: +613 9753 9538; fax: +613 9764 9992. E-mail address: kumar_sl75@yahoo.com (S. Kumar). $ Results of this work are printed as a technical report with limited distribution by the Institute of Applied Sciences at The University of the South Pacic, Suva, Fiji (Kumar et al., 2001). 1 Traditional Pacic style of cooking, lovo as it is known in Fijian, is performed in an oven in the earth prepared by digging a smooth sloping pit on the ground. The main source of heat is provided by the stones (once or twice the size of a st), heated in an open re (normally 12 h) until extremely hot. All food to be cooked is put in the pit at once on these extremely hot and dry stones (without water being poured to generate steam for cooking) and left in the pit, covered with earth, and left to cook for 12 h (1 h and 15 min in this research). 2 A vegetable-based dish that consists of a lling, made by mixing canned meat (sh, mutton or beef) with coconut cream, wrapped by a layer of taro leaves. Depending on the taste and likings of people, onion, chilies, carrot, tomatoes and salt are also added to the lling. 0889-1575/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jfca.2005.06.007

1. Introduction Early developments in the eld of nutrition disclosed that certain substances, important for the proper functioning of the human body, are lost during cooking of foods. Many of these substances are vitamins. Since then there has been continuous research on the retention of vitamins on different types of cooking. Some of these studies include work by Ang et al. (1975), Benterud (1977), Hall and Lin (1981), Warthesen et al. (1984), Bertelsen et al. (1988), Nagra and Khan (1988), RummKreuter and Demmel (1990), El-Shimi (1992), Al-Khalifa and Dawood (1993), Uherova et al. (1993), Hill (1994), Selman (1994), Ryley and Kajda (1994) and Rahmani and Muller (1996).

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Although conservation of nutrients is a major consumer concern related to food preparation, there has not been any research conducted to study the retention of nutrients in foods cooked in an earth-oven, which is a very popular traditional food preparation method in the Pacic Islands. This study compares the vitamin content in earth-oven cooked foods with several common practices of domestic cooking, namely microwaving, oven roasting, boiling and steaming. Comparison is made on the basis of percentage nutrient retention calculated on dry-weight or dry-weightfat-free basis after cooking. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Sample collection and cooking methods Sample collection and cooking methods have been reported in the preceding paper by Kumar and Aalbersberg, Nutrient Retention in foods after earth-oven cooking compared to other forms of domestic cooking: 1. Proximates, carbohydrates and dietary bre (200 ). 2.2. Nutrient analysis 2.2.1. Total Vitamin A Total Vitamin A was calculated as the sum of retinol plus one-sixth of the b-carotene equivalents. 2.2.2. Retinol Exactly weighed 510 g of the samples were saponied using 9% (w/v) alcoholic potassium hydroxide (Brubacher et al., 1986; Furr et al., 1992 and method 974.29, AOAC, 1995). Ascorbic acid solution (10%) was used as an antioxidant in the saponication step (Furr et al., 1992). Saponied samples were then extracted with 50 mL petroleum ether three times in a separating funnel containing 60 mL of 10% brine solution. The extracts were combined and washed ve times with distilled water before being concentrated and made to volume with methanol in a 10 mL volumetric ask. The quantication was done by HPLC using a methanol/water, 95/5 (v/v), mobile phase with a C18 Nova Pak column and a UV detector at 325 nm (Brubacher et al., 1986). 2.2.3. a- and b-carotene The extraction of carotenoids followed the procedure outlined in method 941.15 of AOAC (1995). The quantication was done by HPLC using a methanol/THF, 90/10 (v/v), mobile phase with a C18 Nova Pak column and a UV detector at 450 nm. b-carotene equivalents was calculated as the sum of b-carotene plus half the value of a-carotenes. 2.2.4. Thiamin (Vitamin B1) and riboavin (Vitamin B2) Thiamin was extracted simultaneously with riboavin. The digestion procedure described in method 957.17 (AOAC, 1995) was followed, with a few modications.

All samples were digested with 17 mL of 0.1 N H2SO4 (Osborne and Voogt, 1978), in a boiling water bath for 1 h. When cool the samples were digested with 20% a-amylase at 55 1C in a shaking water bath for 2 h. After cooling the volume was made to 25 mL with distilled water and the extracts centrifuged then ltered through a 0.45 mm lter paper prior to injection into the HPLC. The ltrate was analyzed directly by HPLC for determination of riboavin, whereas for thiamin the sample ltrate was oxidized to thiochrome by potassium ferricyanide (Kawasaki, 1992) by means of post-column derivatization before the uorescence was measured. The quantication of thiamin was done by HPLC with the following conditions: Column: m-Bondapak C18 (3.9 mm 300 mm). Detection: Fluorescence detector; excitation 360 nm, emission 435 nm. Mobile phase: 0.47 g of PIC B6 reagent dissolved in 500 mL of 85% methanol plus 1 mL of glacial acetic acid. pH adjusted to 6.0 with 5% NaHCO3. Oxidant: Mixture of 0.165 g of potassium ferricyanide in 50 mL water added to a mixture of 7.5 g of NaOH in 10 mL of water and diluted to 500 mL with water. The quantication of riboavin was done by HPLC using 45% methanol in water with 0.005 m PIC B7 reagent as the mobile phase, with a m-Bondapak C18 (3.9 mm 300 mm) column and a uorescence detector with excitation and emission set at 360 and 525 nm, respectively. 2.2.5. Niacin All steps followed in the digestion, extraction and determination procedure were as per method 961.14 (AOAC, 1995) for non-cereal foods and feeds. 2.2.6. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) The extraction of ascorbic acid, including the dehydroascorbic acid, was done by blending the sample in 3% metaphosphoric acid in water (Brubacher et al., 1986; AOAC, 1995). The extracted solution was made to volume in a 100 mL volumetric ask and then ltered. The ltrate was cleaned by passing through a C18 sep-pak column. The clean ltrate (2.5 mL) was collected in a 5 mL volumetric ask containing 2.5 mL of dithiothrietol solution. The two solutions were mixed thoroughly and quantied by HPLC using 0.2% orthophosphoric acid in water as the mobile phase, with a Nova Pak C18 (3.9 mm 150 mm) column and a UV detector at 254 nm. Total Vitamin C is taken as the total of the ascorbic acid plus dehydroascorbic acid. 2.3. Quality control procedures All the quality control procedures described in the preceding paper by Kumar and Aalbersberg were performed for the analyses of vitamins too.

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2.4. Nutrient retention calculation For samples except for the lamb chop and chicken, nutrient retention values reported in this work are calculated on the weight change of food after cooking, while the nutrient retention for lamb chop and chicken samples are calculated on the dry-weight-fat-free basis. The method for calculation of retention factors is described in the preceding paper by Kumar and Aalbersberg, which also lists the weights of foods before and after cooking. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Nutrient composition Table 1 contains the vitamin content per 100 g of foods analyzed in this study. Less than detection limit (oDL) is used where it is analytically shown that the constituent was present, but below the detection limit, whereas zero (0) is used where there was no analytical indication of the presence of the analyte. Nutrients, which are known not to be found in a particular sample, were not analyzed and are given as na in the tables. Vitamin contents of skin of chicken in this study are generally comparable to the literature values, except for niacin, the value of which reported in the USDA database is more than twice the amount found in this study. Retinol in lamb fat analyzed in this study was approximately double the amount reported by Cashel et al. (1989). Thiamin in all lamb chop samples analyzed in this study was always higher than the values reported by Cashel et al. (1989). However, in lean of lamb chops Cashel et al. (1989) reported riboavin content to be 0.23 mg/ 100 g, a value four times greater than the content of riboavin in raw separable lean of lamb chops analyzed in this study. Fish which was analyzed in this study did not contain any retinol compared to at least 8 mg/100 g reported for a similar raw sh by Dickey (1991). This sh also had a comparatively lower riboavin content (o0.02 mg/100 g) than the reported value of 0.04 mg/100 g for raw nsh (Dickey, 1991). Cassava and taro which were analyzed in this study differed signicantly from those reported by Cashel et al. (1989) only with respect to their content of thiamin and bcarotene. Analyses of b-carotene in both raw samples showed only trace amounts of this vitamin. The difference is huge when compared to the content of b-carotene in raw cassava (408 mg/100 g) reported by Cashel et al. (1989). High b-carotene content in raw cassava reported by Cashel et al. (1989) could be due to the yellow varieties of cassava which was probably the type analyzed for their work. The amount of thiamin in cassava (0.04 mg/100 g) analyzed in this study was about one-fourth the content of thiamin in cassava (0.16 mg/100 g) in Cashel et al. (1989). However, it was vice versa in the case of taro which

contained about double the amount of thiamin (0.11 mg/ 100 g) compared to 0.06 mg/100 g reported by Cashel et al. (1989) for raw taro. The variations in the vitamin content of raw samples analyzed in this study and the literature could be due to seasonal and geographical differences and probably also be associated with the methods used and the analysts, which were not the same for analyses of nutrients among these researches. In addition the root crops are not grown in Australia and values could have been affected during transport and storage. Nutritional composition of meat samples is inuenced by the type of feed, age, sex and breed of chicken and lamb slaughtered (Demby and Cunningham, 1980). 3.2. Nutrient retention Tables 27 show percentage retention of vitamins after cooking. For comparison of retention of nutrients, a t-test has been used (Morgan, 1991). A dash () has been used in the retention tables to represent nutrient retentions that could not be calculated for those nutrients which were not present in a food. 3.2.1. Retinol Fat-soluble vitamins, which include retinol and carotenes, are said to be less heat-labile than the water-soluble vitamins. They are susceptible to destruction at high temperatures in the presence of oxygen (Lund, 1973). Retention of retinol upon cooking of samples that contained retinol in the raw form is given in Table 2. Except for earth-oven and microwave cooked whole lamb chops, and earth-oven and oven-roasted separable fat of lamb chops, the differences in the retention of retinol in all samples upon different methods of cooking are statistically signicant at 95% condence level. In a generalization by Lang (1970) on the stability and lability of retinol it was stated that this vitamin was quite stable to heat and that its loss during cooking ranged from 10% to 30%. Losses in the same range were also reported by Benterud (1977) in commercial baking of bread and biscuits. However, in this study, retention values of as low as 20% in earth-oven cooked chicken were observed. Retention values of below 55% in other samples include earth-oven cooked chicken skin (33%) and lamb fat sample (40%), and oven-roasted chicken skin (54%), whole lamb chops (42%) and lamb fat (46%). Highest retention of retinolranging from 66% to 91%was observed in microwave-cooked samples. The least amount of retinol was retained in earth-oven cooked samples. Loss of retinol could be associated partially with destruction by heat of cooking and partially with the loss into the melted fat which leached out into the drippings. As it is a fat-soluble vitamin its loss with melted fat would be more pronounced than other water-soluble vitamins.

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314 S. Kumar, B. Aalbersberg / Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 19 (2006) 311320 Table 1 Vitamin content in 100 g of raw and cooked foods Foods Chicken, whole, raw Chicken, whole, e/oven Chicken, whole, m/wave Chicken, whole, o/roast Chicken, whole, literaturea Chicken, lean, raw Chicken, lean, e/oven Chicken, lean, m/wave Chicken, lean, o/roast Chicken, lean, literaturea Chicken, skin, raw Chicken, skin, e/oven Chicken, skin, m/wave Chicken, skin, o/roast Chicken, skin, literatureb L/chops, whole, raw L/chops, whole, e/oven L/chops, whole, m/wave L/chops, whole, o/roast L/chops, whole, literaturea L/chops, lean, raw L/chops, lean, e/oven L/chops, lean, m/wave L/chops, lean, o/roast L/chops, lean, literaturea L/chops, fat, raw L/chops, fat, e/oven L/chops, fat, m/wave L/chops, fat, o/roast L/chops, fat, literaturea Fish, whole, raw Fish, whole, e/oven Fish, whole, m/wave Fish, whole, literaturec Cassava, raw Cassava, e/oven Cassava, boil Cassava, literaturea Taro, raw Taro, e/oven Taro, boil Taro, literaturea Palusami, raw Palusami, e/oven Palusami, steam
a b

Retinol (mg) 12 o5 16 11 39 o5 o5 o5 o5 6 61 33 81 66 76 12 15 12 7 7 0 na na na 0 46 45 31 31 21.5 0 na na 8 0 na na 0 na na na 0 0 0 0

b-carotene (mg) na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na na na na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na 0 o5 na na 408 o5 na na 30 1275 2336 2038

Thiamin (mg) 0.08 0.02 0.07 0.00 0.07 0.09 0.02 0.08 0.00 0.09 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.00 0.03 0.14 0.03 0.08 0.00 0.06 0.18 0.04 0.11 0.00 0.09 0.03 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.00 0.02 0.16 0.11 0.07 0.07 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.02

Riboavin (mg) 0.14 0.09 0.10 0.04 0.15 0.16 0.09 0.10 0.03 0.16 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.03 0.16 0.06 0.06 0.08 0.04 0.23 0.02 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 o0.02 0.00 o0.02 0.04 0.02 0.00 o0.02 0.02 0.02 0.00 o0.02 0.02 0.07 0.04 0.03

Niacin (mg) 5.0 5.4 5.7 4.9 5.0 5.9 5.7 6.5 5.4 5.9 1.6 2.5 2.6 2.6 4.0 3.6 4.2 3.7 3.8 3.3 4.2 4.8 4.8 4.2 4.9 2.0 3.1 1.8 2.2 0.0 4.5 5.8 4.8 2.0 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.8 1.3 1.3 0.9 0.7 1.5 1.6 1.4

Ascorbic acid (mg) na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na na 0 na na na 0 36 31 15 40 0 na na 16 5 5 0

Literature values for raw foods adapted from Cashel et al. (1989). Literature values for raw foods adapted from USDA online database. c Literature values for raw n-sh (Pacic cod) adapted from Dickey (1991).

Table 2 Percent retention of retinol in cooked chicken and lamb chops Sample Chicken: whole Skin only Lamb chops: whole Fat only Earth-oven 20 33 78 40 Microwave 91 72 81 66 Oven-roast 69 54 42 46 USDA 75a

a Percent retention of retinol in dry-heat cooked whole chicken. Adapted from Posati (1979).

3.2.2. b-carotene In plants, Vitamin A activity occurs only as Provitamin A carotenoids which are converted in the animal body to Vitamin A. The most important is b-carotene which has similar properties to Vitamin A but is more stable (Priestley, 1979). All samples originating from plant sources (cassava, taro and palusami) were analyzed for a- and b-carotenes in this study. a-carotene was not found in any of the samples. Measurable amount of b-carotene was only encountered in

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S. Kumar, B. Aalbersberg / Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 19 (2006) 311320 Table 3 Percent retention of b-carotene in cooked palusami Sample Palusami
a

315

Earth-oven 124

Steam 108

USDA 100a

Percent retention of b-carotene in cooked vegetable-based dishes. Adapted from Holland et al. (1991). Table 4 Percent retention of thiamin in cooked samples analyzed in this study Sample Chicken: whole Lean only Fat only Lamb chops: whole Lean only Fat only Fish Cassava Taro Palusami
a b

palusami but in cassava and taro only o5 mg/100 of this vitamin was found. Therefore retention of carotenes in only cooked palusami was calculated and this is given in Table 3. Retention of more than 100% carotene in this study is higher than usually reported values of around 100% in most of the previous researches. Only slight or no losses of

E/oven 18 16 80 13 13 0 0 0 53 51

M/wave 61 64 79 47 42 64 77

O/roast 0 0 0 0 0 0

Boil 58 78

Steam 35

USDA 71a 73a 60b 70c 80d 80d 80c

Percent retention of thiamin in dry-heat cooked whole chicken and separable lean of chicken. Adapted from Posati (1979). Percent retention of thiamin in roasted separable lean of lamb. Adapted from Anderson et al. (1989). c Percent retention of thiamin in baked sh and cooked vegetable-based dishes. Adapted from Holland et al. (1991). d Percent retention of thiamin in boiled sweet potato. Adapted from Haytowitz and Matthews (1984).

Table 5 Percent retention of riboavin in cooked samples analyzed in this study Sample Chicken: whole Lean only Skin only Lamb chops: whole Lean only Palusami
a b

Earth-oven 43 39 67 62 62 39

Microwave 50 44 70 97 93

Oven-roast 22 16 64 43 51

Steam 30

USDA 89a 90a 90b 80c

Percent retention of riboavin in dry-heat cooked whole chicken and separable lean of chicken. Adapted from Posati (1979). Percent retention of riboavin in roasted separable lean of lamb. Adapted from Anderson et al. (1989). c Percent retention of riboavin in cooked vegetable-based dishes. Adapted from Holland et al. (1991).

Table 6 Percent retention of niacin in cooked samples analyzed in this study Sample Chicken: whole Lean only Skin only Lamb chops: whole Lean only Fat only Fish Cassava Taro Palusami
a b

E/oven 72 68 95 73 71 64 94 89 83 63

M/wave 79 79 88 84 80 87 82

O/roast 76 77 81 77 76 75

Boil 86 85

Steam 64

USDA 82a 82a 0 80b 80c 95d 95d 80c

Percent retention of niacin in dry-heat cooked whole chicken and separable lean of chicken. Adapted from Posati (1979). Percent retention of niacin in roasted separable lean of lamb. Adapted from Anderson et al. (1989). c Percent retention of niacin in baked sh and cooked vegetable-based dishes. Adapted from Holland et al. (1991). d Percent retention of niacin in boiled sweet potato. Adapted from Haytowitz and Matthews (1984).

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316 S. Kumar, B. Aalbersberg / Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 19 (2006) 311320 Table 7 Percent retention of ascorbic acid in cassava and palusami cooked by different methods Sample Cassava Palusami
a

Earth-oven 76 62

Boil 47

Steam 0

USDA 75a 50b

Percent retention of ascorbic acid in boiled sweet potato. Adapted from Haytowitz and Matthews (1984). b Percent retention of ascorbic acid in cooked vegetable-based dishes. Adapted from Holland et al. (1991).

was not reected by the calculated retention values, maybe because the increased extraction efciency of carotenoids from the cooked samples had overshadowed a comparatively small loss in carotene content through leaching. The difference in the retention values of the two types of cooked palusami could be due to the extent of loss of carotenes caused by the dripping during the two cooking methods. 3.2.3. Thiamin Thiamin (Vitamin B1) is more stable than ascorbic acid but is the most heat-labile of the B-vitamins, particularly under alkaline conditions (Priestley, 1979). Retention of thiamin in cooked food samples considered in this research is summarized in Table 4. Retention of thiamin in all samples is signicantly different (P 0.05) when cooking methods are compared. Chicken meat cooked by microwave oven retained a higher percentage of thiamin than the oven-roasted or earth-oven cooked chicken. This retention value of 61% in whole chicken and 64% in cooked separable lean of chicken was comparable to the retention of 63.5% reported by AlKhalifa and Dawood (1993) in microwave cooked dark muscles of chicken. The trend of a higher retention of thiamin in microwave-cooked meat than conventionally cooked ones was also reported by Hall and Lin (1981), AlKhalifa and Dawood (1993) and Uherova et al. (1993). The highest retention of thiamin in microwave-cooked meat was observed in sh (77%) compared to 61% retention in microwave cooked whole chicken and 47% in lamb chops. None of the oven-roasted meat retained any detectable thiamin, whereas earth-oven cooked whole chicken retained 18% and lamb chops retained 13% thiamin. Earth-oven cooked sh did not retain any detectable thiamin. Retention of thiamin in microwave cooked meats analyzed in this study were comparatively lower than those published in USDA handbooks for respective samples. These differences could be attributed to the difference in the cooking methods employed for the two studies. Earth-oven cooking of tubers proved to be more destructive to thiamin than boiling. Cassava retained 0% and taro retained 53% thiamin upon earth-oven cooking compared to the retentions of 58% and 78% in boiled cassava and taro, respectively. Aughey and Daniel (1940) reported 67% retention of thiamin in boiled potatoes, which was comparable to cassava and taro. Similar retentions of 72% and 67% thiamin have been reported by Ryley and Kajda (1994) in pressure cooked and boiled potato. Rumm-Kreuter and Demmel (1990) reported retention values as 76% and 77% in pressure cooked and boiled potatoes. However, in the case of palusami earthoven cooking retained more thiamin (51%) than steam cooking (35%). Earth-oven cooking considerably decreased the retention of thiamin in all samples. Thiamin is known to be easily destroyed by heat or oxidation. Since it is water-soluble, it

carotenoids have been reported on cooking of fresh or frozen broccoli (Chapman et al., 1960), frozen carrots (Ang et al., 1975) or peas (Eheart and Gott, 1965) by various methods. Hewston et al. (1948) found that carotene was extremely stable and during the preparation of 20 common foods, retentions approaching 100% were found in most cases. Nevertheless, increased retention such as those in steam and earth-oven cooked palusami, has previously been reported by some researchers. Thomas et al. (1949) reported 2030% increase in carotene content in electronically cooked, boiled and pressure cooked carrots and broccoli. In cooking experiment conducted by Renqvist et al. (1978), carotene content of waterleaf apparently increased after boiling. Similarly, Chandler and Schwartz (1988) reported increase in the retention of blanched sweet potatoes. Several explanations for the increased retention of carotenes in cooked samples have previously been provided. Firstly, as Thomas et al. (1949) described there could have been a loss of carotene in the raw sample as a result of action of destructive enzymes during sampling prior to blending with stabilizing solution. A second, and a more widely used explanation for this increase, is associated with enhanced extraction efciency of carotene from the cooked samples compared with a greater difculty in obtaining complete extraction in the raw sample (Thomas et al., 1949; Renqvist et al., 1978; Chandler and Schwartz, 1988). The difculty in the extraction of b-carotene from raw sample can result from the fact that it is present in quite stable lipoprotein complexes (Renqvist et al., 1978). After cooking, presumably a change in tissue morphology occurred, thereby allowing a greater penetration of organic solvents into the cells and an enhanced release of carotenes (Chandler and Schwartz, 1988). Retention values of more than 100%, however, do not mean that there was no loss of carotenes from the cooked palusami. The dripping from the palusami (collected on the aluminum foil used to wrap palusami) was somewhat green. Probably this resulted from the migration of chloroplasts from leaves into the water. Loss of carotenoids is obvious as both chloroplasts and carotenoids occur in the parenchyma of the leaves (Speek et al., 1988). This effect

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is leached from a product in proportion to the amount of water available, the extent to which it is agitated and the surface area of food exposed to water during boiling. Destruction of all thiamin, as was encountered in some of the samples upon cooking, is quite unusual. However, this could have been due to the fact that the amount of thiamin present in these samples in the raw state was very small. Raw cassava and sh had 0.04 mg/100 g and 0.02 mg/100 g thiamin, respectively and raw separable fat/skin samples of lamb chops and chicken had 0.03 mg/100 g and 0.02 mg/ 100 g of thiamin, respectively. Since there is no cooking water involved in the earthoven, microwave and oven-roasting of meats, the loss of thiamin is partly attributed to leaching of dissolved thiamin into the drippings. Loss of thiamin into the drippings was conrmed by several studies conducted by Priestley (1979), Cross and Fung (1982) and Al-Khalifa and Dawood (1993). Loss of thiamin in meat also depends on several factors such as the size of the cut, fat content and thermal gradient while cooking. Reported retentions range from 90% in fried beef (Tucker et al., 1946) to 29% in pressure-cooked lamb stews (Cover and Dilsaver, 1947). In boiling of tubers the combined effects of heat, water and rapid boiling is responsible for the destruction of thiamin. The diminution in the amount of thiamin retained in the cooked samples can also be partly due to thermal destruction of thiamin into its degradation products that have no Vitamin B1 activity. A large destruction of thiamin in earth-oven cooked samples compared to the microwave cooked ones could be attributed to the lengths of cooking times of these two cooking methods. All samples in the earth-oven were cooked for a xed time of 1 h and 15 min compared to a maximum cooking time of 40 min for chicken, 20 min for lamb chops and 15 min for sh in the microwave. 3.2.4. Riboavin Riboavin, together with niacin (discussed later), is a relatively stable vitamin, resistant to the effects of acid, heat and oxidation. Riboavin is unstable to the presence of alkali and light (Cross and Fung, 1982) but is not appreciably destroyed in the ordinary process of cooking (Lang, 1970). Because of stable nature of this vitamin and niacin there are fewer research studies reporting riboavin and niacin retentions in cooked foods than there are for thiamin. The percentage retention of riboavin in cooked samples analyzed in this study are given in Table 5. The differences in the retention of riboavin in chicken and lamb chop samples cooked by the three methods and palusami cooked by the two methods are statistically signicant (P 0.05). Among the three cooking methods studied for chicken and lamb chops, oven roasting appeared to be least favorable for retention of riboavin in meats. Retention of riboavin in microwave cooked lamb chop samples was above 90% which was in good agreement with the retention values reported by Ang et al.

(1975) for cooking of beef by four reconstitutional methods. Retention values for microwave cooked lamb chops (97%) was slightly higher than the retention of 88% reported by Baldwin et al. (1976) and 89.5% by Bowers and Fryer (1972) for microwave cooked lamb and turkey, respectively. Retention of riboavin in other cooked lamb chop and chicken samples were much lower than the commonly reported values of in excess of 90% (Engler and Bowers, 1976). Earth-oven cooked lamb chop samples retained 62% riboavin compared to retention of 51% and 43% in oven-roasted separable lean and whole lamb chops. As with the lamb chops, the highest retention of riboavin in chicken samples was shown by microwavecooked samples and the least in the oven-roasted chicken. However, retention of riboavin in cooked chicken samples was signicantly lower than the accordingly cooked lamb chop samples. Microwave cooked whole chicken retained 50% riboavin, highest compared to 43% retained in earth-oven cooked chicken and only 22% in oven-roasted chicken, but much lower than the retention of 97% in microwave cooked whole lamb chops. Similarly, separable lean of chicken retained 44% after microwave cooking, 39% after earth-oven cooking and 16% after oven-roasting, compared to 93%, 62% and 51% retentions in, respectively, cooked separable lean of lamb chops. Among the chicken samples, highest retention of riboavin was recorded in cooked separable skin of chicken. Retention of riboavin in the oven-roasted meat was far lower than the retention values reported for conventionally cooked meat, above 96% (Baldwin et al., 1976) or 91% in gas-oven cooked turkey (Bowers and Fryer, 1972). No direct comparison of the present study can be made with other reported data since the cooking methods, products used and the data representations varied signicantly among researches. A fairly high amount of loss of riboavin was also recorded in earth-oven and steam cooked palusami which retained 39% and 30% riboavin, respectively. Loss of riboavin in meat samples, including palusami can be mostly attributed to the leaching losses. As riboavin is a water-soluble vitamin leaching losses into the drippings are possible (Cross and Fung, 1982). Because of its solubility in water, loss of this vitamin from tubers during boiling is mostly by diffusion into the cooking water (Lang, 1970), though these values were not calculated because the content of riboavin in the cooked tubers was less than 0.2 mg/100 g, the detection limit of this vitamin. Retention values of cooked separable fat of lamb chops and cooked sh were also not calculated due to the same reason. 3.2.5. Niacin Riboavin and niacin have been said to be stable vitamins. Niacin is, however, more stable than riboavin since riboavin is unstable to the presence of light whereas niacin is even stable to light (Lang, 1970; Cross and Fung,

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1982). Niacin is probably the most stable of all vitamins (Priestley, 1979). Resistance of niacin in different samples subjected to various cooking methods are shown as percentage retention in Table 6. As with the other two water-soluble vitamins retention of niacin in microwave-cooked chicken and lamb chops was greater than the retention in these samples cooked by the other two methods. One exception to this trend was the retention in cooked separable skin of chicken which retained the most niacin (95%) compared to 88% retained after microwave cooking and 81% after oven-roasting. Furthermore, except for cooked separable skin of chicken, most niacin was lost from the earth-oven cooked meat samples. Retention of niacin in whole chicken did not differ much from the retention values, respectively, in cooked whole lamb chops. Earth-oven, microwave and oven-roasted whole chicken retained 72%, 79% and 76% niacin compared to close retention values of 73%, 84% and 77% in, respectively, cooked whole lamb chops. Retention in cooked separable lean and fat of both types of meat was also not considerably different except for retention of niacin in earth-oven cooked skin of chicken which retained 95% niacin compared to 64% retained in lamb fat cooked by the same method. When earth-oven, microwave and oven roasting are compared, the difference in the retention values of niacin in all samples of chicken and lamb chops and sh are statistically signicant at the 95% condence level. However, the difference in the retention values of two types of cooked cassava, taro and palusami are statistically insignicant. The retention values in cooked whole lamb chops and chicken ranged from 68% to 84%, the values being slightly less than but still comparable to those reported by previous researchers for retention in cooked beef, pork or lamb (Thomas et al., 1949; Baldwin et al., 1976). Contrary to the trend in retention of niacin in meat samples, retention of niacin in sh was higher after earthoven cooking (94%) compared to microwave cooking (87%). Though the retention in microwave cooked sh was much lower, retention in earth-oven cooked sh was in good agreement with the value published for baked sh by Holland et al. (1991). There was no signicant difference in the retention of niacin cooked by different cooking methods tested for cassava and taro. Earth-oven cooked cassava retained 89% compared to 86% retention of niacin in boiled cassava. Retention of niacin in earth-oven cooked and boiled taro was 83% and 85%, respectively. These values were low compared to retention of 95% in boiled sweet potato reported by Haytowitz and Matthews (1984). This difference could be due to the difference in the samples used and the methods of preparation and conditions of boiling used in the two researches. Retention values of as low as 72% have been reported for boiling of potatoes by Krehl and Winters (1950).

The difference of only 1% in the retention values of two types of cooked palusami was insignicant. Earth-oven and steam cooked palusami retained 63% and 64% niacin, respectively. Loss of niacin from the cooked samples may be due to loss through leaching of niacin into the drippings or diffusion of niacin into the cooking water used for boiling. Niacin is a water-soluble vitamin and its loss into the cooking water or drippings had previously been demonstrated by Thomas et al. (1949), Teply and Derse (1958) and Watt and Merrill (1963). Dripping losses were prominent in the cooking of all samples except for cassava and taro.

3.2.6. Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) Ascorbic acid is found almost exclusively in foods of plant origin. There are many factors affecting ascorbic acid retention in foods. It is easily destroyed by oxidation, presence of alkali and heat. A great number of investigations have been carried out on the effects of processing and cooking on ascorbic acid content of foods. In the present work ascorbic acid was found to be a component of only cassava and palusami. Retentions of ascorbic acid on cooking of these samples are given in Table 7. From the published values of ascorbic acid reported by previous researchers on household cooking, Priestley (1979) summarized that boiling of root vegetables retains 5575% of this vitamin. Boiling of cassava, however, caused a little less retention (47%) in the current study. The highest retention of ascorbic acid was noted in earth-oven cooked cassava which could be because ascorbic acid in cassava was only destroyed by heat whereas in the other samples destruction of ascorbic acid would have been the combined effects of heating and leaching in boiling water. Loss through extraction of ascorbic acid into the cooking liquor is demonstrated by Thomas et al. (1949), Krehl and Winters (1950), Benterud (1977), Cross and Fung (1982) and Thomson (1982) who analyzed the effects of cooking on this vitamin. In boiling of vegetables, as high as 60% loss of ascorbic acid through extraction into the cooking water has been reported earlier (Priestley, 1979). The same author has reported a 1525% loss of ascorbic acid through extraction from boiled root vegetables. Because of such a high solubility of ascorbic acid in water it could be possible that the loss through leaching with the dripping from palusami is partly responsible for the loss of this vitamin from the cooked palusami. Contrary to most of the previous ndings, steam cooking of palusami proved to be most detrimental to ascorbic acid. Losses of less than 20% are usually reported in steam cooked vegetables (Priestley, 1979; Somogyi, 1990; Ryley and Kajda, 1994). However, loss of as high as 46.5% has also been reported by Rumm-Kreuter and Demmel (1990) for steam cooked spinach.

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Loss of all the ascorbic acid from a sample is not commonly encountered, even in the literature. Such a great loss from the steam cooked palusami can be explained partly by the effects of leaching caused by steaming. During cooking some steam could have leaked through the aluminum foil into the palusami and fell off as water droplets after dissolving ascorbic acid. This continuous cycle of solubilization of ascorbic acid in the steam lost as water droplets would have had increased effect on the loss of ascorbic acid by leaching. Another factor that could have been responsible for such a great loss is the temperature of cooking. During cooking the temperature remained around 105 1C but towards the end, when the water in the pot was about to nish, the temperature rose to 198 1C in the last 10 min of cooking. Exposure to such a high cooking temperature could have caused destruction of the majority of ascorbic acid. 4. Conclusions Microwave oven cooking, which required shorter heating times, tended to retain higher amounts of vitamins. Low retention of retinol, thiamin and riboavin in earthoven cooked meat compared to microwave cooked meat could be due to a higher cooking temperature (99.5 1C) of earth-oven cooking compared to 93 1C in microwave cooking. Furthermore, the length of cooking, which was greater in earth-oven (1 h and 15 min) compared to microwave cooking (40, 20 and 15 min for chicken, lamb chops and sh, respectively), could also have enhanced the loss of these vitamins in earth-oven cooking. Solubilization into the cooking water and drippings had a more pronounced effect on the ascorbic acid content of cassava and palusami. Ascorbic acid is lost into the cooking water and drippings and is destroyed by heat. Most ascorbic acid is lost from the samples subjected to the cooking methods, such as boiling of cassava and earth-oven cooking and steaming of palusami, that provide a combination of these two detrimental effects on ascorbic acid. Overall differences in the retention of nutrients between cooking methods could be used to determine which method of cooking favored best nutrient retention. Since the difference in the retention of vitamins in foods cooked by different methods is very distinctive, it provides a fair view of a more favorable cooking method. Earth-oven cooking caused the highest loss of retinol with retention values of only 20% in chicken and 40% in fat of lamb chops. Though the retention of thiamin in earth-oven cooked meat was not 0%, as was the case for oven-roasted meat, it was still very low relative to the retention in microwave-cooked meat. Thiamin in sh and cassava was completely destroyed upon earth-oven cooking. Loss of almost half (51% retention) the content of thiamin present in raw palusami is unsatisfactory when compared to the retention of 80% on average reported for cooked vegetable-based recipe dishes (Holland et al., 1991).

Earth-oven cooking compared to microwave cooking retained signicantly less riboavin in the meat samples. Retention ranged from only 39% to only as high as 67%. These values are comparatively less than the literature retention factors of around 90% for roasted meat (Posati, 1979; Anderson et al., 1989). Retention of niacin in earth-oven cooked samples was lowest but still quite comparable to the retention of niacin in respective samples cooked by the other methods and also the values in the literature. Comparing the effects of different cooking methods on food samples analyzed in this study it is unveiled that earth-oven cooking is most deleterious to the vitamins present in the foods, except palusami, cooked by this method. Steam cooking was even more destructive to almost all the vitamins (thiamin, riboavin and ascorbic acid) present in palusami. Microwave, on overall, proved to be the most effective cooking method with enhanced nutrient retention in meat samples. References
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