Vitamin E Preserving - Which Forms Of Vitamin E?

Vitamin E helps preserve food and oils due to its antioxidant capacity.

Because it's a fat soluble vitamin, vitamin e preserving can generally only be added to foods or drinks that contain fats. When added to water based items, it tends to float to the surface, although manufacturers are developing cold water dispersable forms of vitamin E to address this problem.

Antioxidant preservatives like vitamin E also help prevent vitamins and amino acids from deteriorating when they are exposed to air. All told, vitamin e preserving helps extend the shelf life of a product. In terms of the health benefits of vitamin e, natural forms of vitamin e are much better. The body absorbs and uses twice the amount of natural vitamin e compared to the synthetic forms of vitamin e.

d-alpha tocopherol is the only recognized form of vitamin e to have benefit for the body. The dl forms of vitamin e are synthetic, and are petroleum based, and only 12.5% of them have the d-alpha form that benefits the body. The body tends to excrete non d alpha tocopherol forms of vitamin e. (Source: http://www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/2004/1204INI.html).

However, in terms of vitamin e preserving, the mixed alpha tocopherols that are high in non-alpha-tocopherols (read, the non biologically active forms of vitamin e), are best. Specifically, d-gamma and d-delta tocopherols are most active in preventing lipid oxidation in fat containing products. (Source: above link)

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