An investigation of the general, reproductive and postnatal developmental toxicity of Betapol, a human milk fat equivalent.

Betapol consists of triglyceride fatty acids commonly found in vegetable and animal fats. A similarity to human milk fat indicated a potential use in infant formulae as well as for food use in general. To test the potential for substantial equivalence with a related food grade oil, palm oil, Betapol was fed to rats at 15% content in the diet using an augmented two-generation study, in order to obtain information on general (6 months), reproductive and postnatal developmental toxicity in a single study rather than separate studies. For comparison there were two control groups, namely a comparative control fed a diet containing 15% of food grade oil and a negative, or laboratory standard control fed a commercial rodent breeding diet (LAD), containing 2.3-4.7% fat. It was reasoned that if Betapol fed groups showed differences from the comparative control in the direction of the negative control these would reflect differences in the nutritional value of the high fat diets. Presence of a toxicant might be indicated by differences from the comparative control group opposite to the negative control group. The group fed 15% Betapol showed occasional, statistically significant differences from the comparative control group but the direction of difference was towards the negative control group and did not indicate the presence of an unexpected toxicant.