Vitaminas y Minerales

Biofortified Crops Can Alleviate Micronutrient Deficiencies: Review of Evidence from Randomized Feeding Trials

Abstract

Ronoh AK, Were GM, Mueni MM

Micronutrient deficiencies are still common in developing countries. Biofortification of staple crops is one of the food based strategies that has been introduced to alleviate this. The purpose of this review is to document randomized feeding trials on efficacy of biofortified crops in alleviation of micronutrient deficiencies of Vitamin A, Zinc and Iron among humans. NCBI abstracts, BioMed Central, Wiley Online Libraries and two other databases were searched to identify effective studies. The search identified 45 studies and 17 met the inclusion criteria. Thirteen of the seventeen studies showed that biofortification of commonly consumes staples improved the micronutrient status of the study subjects. Two studies showed that biofortified foods had a significant bioavailability as compared to conventional food crops. Evidence of biofortified crops combating micronutrient deficiencies is positive. Policies should be made to support cross-sectorial implementation of biofortification in areas such as research, agriculture and biotechnology, and so that the intervention can be scaled up to cover most of the micronutrient deficient population.