Introduction. Vitamin D is a liposoluble vitamin that has many important roles in the human body. Daily requirements for vitamin D
are met through intake of food and exposure to sunlight. The high
frequency of vitamin D deficiency is a public health problem that can
be corrected using food supplements (FS), which is why its consumption is increasing. The quality of FS, including the content of active
components, depends on the good manufacturing practice which is
not strictly regulated for the production of FS, as well as the formulation, packaging and storage. Because of that, the quality of FS can be
variable. The aim of our pilot study was to examine the conformity of
the actual determined content of vitamin D and the declared content
in 49 FS, in the form of tablets and capsules, present on the market in
Republic of Srpska.
Method. Determination of vitamin D content was performed by
high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Results. The range of the determined content of vitamin D in relation
to the declared content, expressed as a percentage, was from 64,4%
to 188,8%, whereby the deviation is not statistically significant (mean:
100.50%; Cl 95% -0.54 to 0.17; p=0.313 tablets; mean: 98.02%; Cl 95%
-3.00 to 0.42; p=0.127 capsules). When measurement uncertainty is
taken into account, only one sample (2.0%) was outside the legally
allowed range (88.8% more than labeled).
Conclusion. Therefore, it has been shown that most of the examined
products are of satisfactory quality in terms of vitamin D content, but
it is necessary to continuously monitor the food supplements that are
on the market.
