Knowledge about vitamin E has expanded so rapidly over the past few
decades that it is difficult for anyone to keep up with even a few of the
general areas pertinent to the vitamin—chemistry, nutrition, metabolism,
genetics, functional impact on disease onset and severity, pharmacology,
regulations, food technology, and food composition and analytical
challenges, to name a few. Our careers in food science and technology are
focused on food composition and analysis. We have been privileged to
play a role in improving the availability of food composition information
on vitamin E and, in some ways, the analytical capability for its assay.
Interaction with the food industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Nutrient Data Laboratory, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and
various international organizations concerned with food composition has
opened many avenues for research, none of which has been more satisfying
or challenging than work on vitamin E.