There’s been a cavalcade of developments announced this week in the Food Science Department. Herewith find the latest breakthroughs in the ongoing effort to breed better Corn, Tomatoes and Potatoes. And something new in Apples that promises to cut grower losses to disease and, maybe, lower prices…
Sources of Vitamin A: Vitamin A is crucial to the normal development
of young children and keeps us all healthy, at every age…
Vitamin A and Blindness…
First, let’s look at the developments in the battle against third world blindness… Scientists have determined that – contrary to previous beliefs – carotinoids, precursors of Vitamin A, can withstand the heat of cooking and pass through to diners. That’s important because much of the blindness in the third world, particularly among children, results from Vitamin A deficiency. Science has produced Vitamin A-fortified versions of Bananas, Corn and other crops that are staples in various parts of Africa and Asia, and now we know that the Corn, at least, doesn’t lose its benefits in cooking.
Elsewhere, researchers are working on breeding Chickens that produce Eggs with enhanced levels of Vitamin A. The same researchers who worked on the Corn have found that normal household cooking methods – with the notable exceptions of high-heat pan frying and deep frying – do not degrade the Vitamin A in Eggs, either.
Following right along on the Vitamin A track…
Another group of researchers at Ohio State University has announced they’ve bred a new strain of ‘Golden’ Potato which is extremely rich in Vitamins A and E. They say that one serving of the yellow-orange lab-engineered potato has the potential to provide as much as 42 percent of a child’s recommended daily intake of vitamin A and 34 percent of a child’s recommended intake of Vitamin E. Potatoes are the fourth most important dietary staple in the world after Rice, Wheat and Corn.
Then, there’s the humble Tomato…
Already lauded for its anti-oxidant properties and Vitamin content, new types have even more to offer!. Now, Chinese food researchers have created a new Tomato that contains 6 times the Vitamin E and twice the Vitamin A of regular Tomatoes.
Are you beginning to see a pattern in these recent lab-based developments?
News on the Apple front…
A new type of Apple that resists disease better than regular Apples is now in testing to see how it performs in terms of production and other factors that orchard operators prize. The first of these new Apples is called the Wine Crisp and it is extremely resistant to the Apple Scab Fungus, which can devastate an Apple crop unless growers apply multiple sprays of pesticides to combat it. The new Apple types won’t need pesticides to survive to harvest and that’s good for a couple of reasons. First, Apple growers will save money and may be able to sell their produce at a lower price. Second, we on the consuming end won’t have to worry so much about washing our Apples before eating them!
Stay tuned!
This century is going to be an amazing one for developments in food and nutrition. We’ll keep you up to date on them as they come along!
~ Maggie J.