This study aimed to quantify vitamin B12 in 38 seafood products widely consumed in Korea and to generate reliable data for the National Food Composition Database. Vitamin B12 was analyzed as cyanocobalamin using immunoaffinity purification combined with RP-HPLC/DAD. The method showed excellent linearity (R2=1.0000), with LOD and LOQ of 0.01 μg/100 g and 0.03 μg/100 g, respectively. Accuracy was validated using SRM 1549a and SRM 3235, with recovery rates of 103.0% and 106.0%. Precision tests using commercial infant formula showed CVs of 5.35% (repeatability) and 3.51% (reproducibility). Cyanocobalamin levels ranged from 0.13 to 19.75 μg/100 g. High contents were found in cockle canned products (19.75±0.48), salted oyster (13.72±1.17), pollock roe (8.41±0.31), and laver chips (7.69±0.04). Heat-processed items like fish sausage (0.13-0.32) and breaded seafood (0.48-0.65 μg/100 g) showed lower levels, and some samples had no detectable B12. These findings indicate that both raw materials and processing influenced B12 levels. This study provides essential data to enhance national nutritional databases and highlights seafood products, including fermented and seaweed-based varieties, as potential sources of vitamin B12, especially valuable for populations with limited intake of animal products.
Je et al. (Wed,) studied this question.