Riboflavin contents in milk.

[Enrique]

Milk, everyone would agree, is the fundamental food of humans (and mammals in general). When you buy some food article at the supermarket, in most cases there will be a little table printed in the case showing the product nutritional composition. Milk is no exception. One of the leading producers of milk in my country, prints this in the sachet:

Nutritional information
------------------------------
For each 100 ml (milliliter):
Energetic value ......................................... 58 kcal/242 kJ
Carbohydrates .......................................... 4.5 g [g = gram]
Proteins .................................................. ... 3.2 g
Total fats .................................................. .. 3.0 g
Saturated fats ........................................... 1.8 g
Trans fats .................................................. . 0.0 g
Fiber .................................................. ......... 0.0 g
Sodium .................................................. ..... 43 mg [mg = milligram]
Calcium .................................................. .... 140 mg
Vitamin A .................................................. . 64 mcg [mcg = microgram]
Vitamin B9 ................................................. 18 mcg
Vitamin C .................................................. . 7.0 mg
Vitamin D .................................................. . 1.0 mcg

Very well. It happens that vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, is the fundamental vitamin of milk. Where in that table can the vitamin B2 contents of the product be seen?: nowhere. I think this way of deceiving people is outrageous and should be publicly denounced in the news media. Do dairy producers in the arch civilized country of England do the same? Do they also hide to the public the vitamin B2 contents of milk? Though in the same way that nobody seems to care about this "detail" in Argentina, as far as I know, it is quite likely that an Englishman has not the least idea about what he is really drinking when he drinks milk.

[Peter]

My supermarket milk doesn't list much at all other than pasteurised half fat, as far as I'm aware - I'll have a look next time!

[Enrique]

There must be a good reason for British milk producers not giving that kind of information in their products. I called to the company that sells to the supermarkets the milk I buy and they told me each 100ml (= 100 cm3) contains 0.16 mg of vitamin B2. Now, in the Collier's Encyclopedia ed.1963, it says

Milk , cow, fluid, whole, 1 cup: 0.42mg

but exactly how many milliliters are one cup for the Collier's Encyclopedia? The company says that they do not explicit the B2 content of their milk because is too low, but for me it is a mere pretext and they should not keep such vital information hidden from the public. Anyways 0.42mg per cup is evidently a much lower concentration than 0.16mg / 100ml.

Another incomprehensible thing is the fact that neither butter bears the contents of vitamin A in the package, vitamin A being the butter vitamin per excellence.