Impact of cooking on vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D3 content of pork products

Little 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/saute), on the vitamin D-3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D-3 (25(OH)D-3) 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 D-3 (+49 %) and 25(OH)D-3 (+33 %) concentrations. All cooked loin vitamin D-3 concentrations were significantly lower than mince/sausage. Vitamin D-3 retention was > 100 % for all samples (102-135 %), except saute mince (99 %) which still did not differ significantly from 100 % retention. Sous-vide cooking resulted in the highest vitamin D-3 retention (135 %). Likely owing to water/fat loss, household cooking of pork results in favourable retention of vitamin D-3 and 25 (OH)D-3. The type of pork product has greater influence than cooking method.