Folates are essential micronutrients for human health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of storage, processing and cooking methods on folate content and identify factors with great influence on folate retention in wheat grains and wheat-based foods. For this, the folate levels of wheat grains after 2-8 months of storage, wheat flours, noodles, fermented dough, steamed bun, and bread were sequentially analyzed. An average of 26% folate loss was observed after eight-month storage in wheat grains. The milling process, with an extraction rate of 70%, led to a severe (71%) folate loss. The folate retention rate in noodles was 78%. Fermentation by yeast production enabled a 1.5-4-fold enhancement of folate levels in steamed bun and bread. Boiling, steaming and baking led to a folate loss of 13%, 16%, and 11%, respectively. These results help to guide industrial/household preparation of wheat-based foods for folate nutrition.

Introduction With increasing automation in clinical laboratories, the requirements for quality control (QC) material have greatly increased in order to monitor performance. The constant use of commercial control material is not economically feasible for many countries because of nonavailability or the high-cost of those materials. Therefore, preparation and use of in-house QC serum will be a very cost-effective measure with respect to laboratory needs. Materials and Methods In-house internal quality control from leftover serum samples of master health checkup subjects, which have been screened negative for HIV, HCV and HBsAg antibodies was pooled in a glass jar with ethanediol as preservative and kept in deep freezer at - 20 degrees C. From the pooled serum, 100 microliter thirty aliquots were prepared. Every day along with commercial internal QC (IQC), one aliquot of pooled serum was analyzed for 30 days for the following parameters: plasma glucose, blood urea, serum creatinine, total cholesterol, triglycerides (TGL), high-density lipoprotein, calcium, total protein, albumin, total bilirubin, AST, ALT, ALP, amylase. After getting 30 values for each parameter, mean, standard deviation (SD) and CV% were calculated for both IQC commercial sample and pooled serum sample. Results The mean, SD, and CV% of glucose, cholesterol, TGL, calcium, alanine aminotransaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), amylase, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were statistically significant between pooled serum and commercial QC. Conclusion In-house QC prepared from pooled serum is better than commercial internal QC. The biochemical parameters were stable in pooled serum due to less matrix effect; also, variation was less in pooled serum IQC.