Bioavailability of lutein from a lutein-enriched egg-yolk beverage and its dried re-suspended versions

Abstract

Drying a fresh lutein-enriched egg-yolk beverage would extend its shelf life, however, functional properties should not be affected. It was investigated whether consumption of a dried beverage containing lutein-enriched egg-yolk significantly increases serum lutein.

One-hundred healthy young subjects participated in this 6-weeks randomized controlled study. Subjects consumed either a “plain” control beverage (n = 26), a fresh lutein-enriched egg-yolk beverage (n = 25), a dried version of this beverage (n = 25), or a beverage composed of the dried individual components of the drink (n = 24).

The fresh and both dried versions of the lutein-enriched egg-yolk beverage were able to increase serum lutein levels after 6 weeks of consumption (lutein change: −38 ± 47 nmol/L, +304 ± 113 nmol/L, +148 ± 79 nmol/L and +178 ± 83 nmol/L for control, fresh, dried and combined dried group respectively; p < 0.001). No significant change in serum cholesterol level was seen in the beverages containing lutein-enriched egg-yolk compared to the control drink.

• Age-related macular degeneration
• cholesterol
• egg-yolk
• serum lutein

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the participants who took part in this study.