Innovation hub for biofortification research into improved food nutrition launches in the UK

01 Dec 2022 --- The Norwich Research Park is unveiling an innovation hub for research into biofortification to increase nutrient levels in crops and food. The Quadram Institute and John Innes Centre will establish the innovation hub to strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in research and commercialization of biofortification – the development of crops, foods, feed and fodder with higher levels of nutrients.

The news comes after a recent study in Trends in Plant Science warned that increasing levels of atmospheric CO2 threaten the nutritional value of crops. Published during the build-up to COP27, the researchers highlighted that rising CO2 levels create difficulties for plants to obtain the necessary minerals to grow nutritious food, especially two primary nutrients essential for human health: proteins built from nitrogen and iron.

The new innovation hub aims to transform current food systems to ensure sufficient nutrition is available through sustainable routes. Biofortification will play a key role toward this goal. The hub brings together the expertise needed to address new opportunities and innovations in biofortification and build new capacity to address challenges and deliver real-world applications.

Connecting supply chain expertise
The Biofortification Hub combines expertise in soil, crop genetics, food innovation and human health and nutrition. It will work closely on the biofortification of food and feed crops with farmers, food producers and retailers across the supply chain.

Biofortification may be the best solution to some plants predicted dwindling nutrition.“Biofortification provides the opportunity to improve the nutritional properties of foods through both traditional and modern approaches. Improving the nutritional quality of foods is essential as we look to offer enhanced dietary choices that will increase the healthy lifespan of individuals,” says Professor Martin Warren of the Quadram Institute and lead of the Biofortification Hub.

Professor Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre and hub co-lead adds: “Deficiencies in micronutrients affect not only the young and vulnerable but also health throughout the life course. Developing ways to improve levels of micronutrition in foods is key to addressing sustainable good health.”

“Biofortification used to be considered necessary only for developing countries with extensive ‘hidden hunger,’ but biofortification in a much broader context must now be considered a priority for the UK to maintain the health of consumers.”

Addressing innovation barriers
The Biofortification Hub is one of six new innovation hubs that will be launched to create the Diet and Health Open Innovation Research Club. The hubs will address shared barriers to innovation across the food and drink sector.

From maximizing the nutritional value of foods to better understanding what influences food choices and the relationship between food and health, these new innovation hubs will bring together “world-class” leaders from academia, industry and wider stakeholders.

In addition to leading the Biofortification Hub, Quadram Institute researchers will be working with some of the other hubs in the Diet and Health Open Innovation Research Club, including the RIPEN Hub at Imperial College London. This hub is focused on understanding the complex relationship between food and human physiology to support healthier diets.

The researchers will also work with a hub led by the University of Southampton, aiming to understand how food and beverages deliver improved nutrition across the life course. This mission will bring together researchers and the food industry to develop ways of ensuring we age healthily by better understanding how ill health in old age is affected by early-life diets, as well as poor diets in adulthood.Crop Biofortification may offer new avenues in the realm of functional foods and beverages.

Supporting healthier UK diets
Poor diet has a huge impact on public health. As recently highlighted in the Government Food Strategy, there remains a major challenge in producing and encouraging the uptake of healthier, more nutritious food products in the UK.

Led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with support from DEFRA, Innovate UK and the Medical Research Council (MRC), the new Diet and Health Open Innovation Research Club represents an investment of almost £15 million (US$18.3 million) into research and innovation that will help address the critical, shared barriers to innovation across the food and drink sector.

This new funding forms part of the recently-announced BBSRC and Innovate UK’s strategic partnership.

The new innovation hubs will support and drive progress across one or more of the following strategic priority areas:

• Understanding the interplay between food components and human physiology
• Improving health and nutrition through biofortification
• Biological, social and psychological determinants of food choice and eating behavior
• Development of functional foods and beverages
• Understanding how food and beverages deliver improved nutrition across the life course.
• Each Innovation Hub will build cross-sector collaborative networks to improve the UK’s capacity and capability and deliver world-class innovation around diet and health.

Edited by Joshua Poole