Vitamin A compositions

Claim 1

A process for the preparation of dry, free flowing beadlets containing microcrystalline vitamin A acetate which exhibits excellent vitamin A stability without containing any antioxidants and which comprises (a) homogenizing with sufficient high shear force to obtain particle sizes of from about 0.5μ to about 50μ of molten or wet-milled vitamin A acetate in an aqueous solution containing from about 0.1% to about 5% by weight, based on the weight of the solution, of an edible, water-soluble carrier composition selected from the group consisting of gelatin, gum arabic, pectin, sugar, tragacanth, alginates, guar sperm meal, methylcellulose, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, modified starch, sodium ascorbyl palmitate, a polyoxyalkylene derivative of sorbitan monostearate, mixtures of glycerol mono- annd di-ricinoleates with polyoxyethylene glycol ether groups and monoricinoleic esters of polyethylene glycol; (b) cooling the resulting emulsion to about 15° C. while continuing the homogenization technique until such particle size ranges are obtained, of completely crystalline vitamin A acetate microcrystals; (c) separating the completely crystallized microcrystalline vitamin A acetate from the liquid medium by centrifugation; (d) adding the microcrystalline vitamin A acetate to a gelatin/sugar solution wherein the ratio of gelatin to sugar is about 3 to 1; (e) heating the resulting mixture to from about 40° to about 50° C. with vigorous stirring to suspend the microcrystals; (f) adding the resulting microcrystal suspension of step (e) to an oil which has been heated to 45° C. using sufficient stirring to form fine droplets; (g) cooling the resultant mixture with stirring to from about 5° to about 15° C. to solidify the droplets; (h) washing the beadlets with a solvent for the oil; (i) separating the beadlets from the suspension medium, and (j) drying the beadlets to thus form dry, free-flowing beadlets containing vitamin A acetate in microcrystalline form and which exhibit excellent vitamin A stability without containing any antioxidants.