A new approach to improving food is making waves in the scientific community. So-called ‘bioforti-fied’ lettuce delivers 30 times more vitamin A than ordinary leaf lettuce. The process does not involve genetic modification. And may mark the dawn of a new food era…
It looks just like regular leaf lettuce… But has a beautiful, glowing, golden colour. It contains 30 times more vitamin A than regular lettuce. And that’s considered a breakthrough in nutrition deliver.
A noble goal
“Micronutrient deficiency, also known as hidden hunger, is still a major problem in many countries. In particular, vitamin A deficiency causes xerophthalmia and can lead to other health problems and even death, affecting children from malnourished populations worldwide,” the authors say, in a pre-amble to the study report.
“The incorporation of micronutrients such as vitamin A or its carotenoid precursors as dietary sup-plements or as food ingredients […] can be a solution, but these strategies remain unaffordable in many cases.”
What they did
Researchers from Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) found a way to repurpose na-turally-occurring nodules in lettuce leaves to act as storage containers for Vitamin A. Lettuce pro-duces it, but, until now, has had no mechanism by which to store it.
“By stimulating beta-carotene production and storage in the leaves using light treatments and mol-ecular methods, the scientists were able to dramatically boost the lettuce’s nutrient content without genetic modification,” the team explains. The big deal is, existing genes are encouraged to work hard-er. But they’re not modified (GMO’ed).
The takeaway
The new process, “represents a very significant advance for improving nutrition […] without giving up their characteristic scent and flavor.”
More significantly, biofortification could be a game-changer, not only in the specific case of adding vitamin A to lettuce. Making similar ‘adjustments’ to gene expression in other fruits and veggies could address many other nutrition-rooted issues – with grassroots solutions that affected folks can grow themselves.
My take
An angle that neither the study report, nor secondary reporting on this project don’t give a high enough profile is, this is NOT genetic modification, also known as splicing. And, as such, it should not trigger objections from the legions of folks out there who are vehemently opposed to radical genetic changes they say could produce dangerous ‘Frankenfoods’.
In fact, this new approach to bio-engineering may end up being orders of magnitude more import in our plant-based future than simply fortifying individual foods…
~ Maggie J.