Impact of non-thermal pasteurization technologies on vitamin B12 content in milk

Limited studies have reported on the effect of non-thermal processing technologies on vitamin B12, an essential vitamin that does not occur in many plant based foods. In this study, raw milk was treated by HHP (300 to 600 MPa, 5 min), PEF (16 kV/cm, 29 to 51 kJ/L), or UV-C (2 to 18 mJ/cm2). The results showed that PEF and HHP pasteurization preserved the initial content of B12 in milk while UV-C caused 10% loss. HHP at 600 MPa (5 min) reduced the total number of microorganisms, similar to conventional pasteurization levels, without impact on vitamin B12 concentration. PEF treatment at 43 kJ/L did not affect vitamin B12 concentration, and provided a 0.9 log10 CFU/mL reduction above the reference for pasteurization. While UV-C caused no microbial reduction with the experimental setup used, but even so, a 10% reduction in vitamin B12 concentration occurred at the highest UV-C dose (18 mJ/cm2).