Cereal Biofortification: Strategies, Challenges, and Benefits

摘要

Under-nutrition is seen as one of the key underlying causes of the 10 million child deaths each year—most of which are preventable and most of which occur in poor countries (3). Worldwide 13 million children under the age of 5 years have severe acutemalnutrition, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 9% of children have moderate acute malnutrition (8). The major direct causes of under-nutri-tion in poor developing countries are insufficient food intake and an unbalanced diet caused by lack of variety in available foods coupled with disease outbreaks (20). Unbalanced diets ate often deficient in micronutrient-rich foods and may also have low bioavailability of essential mi-cronutrients (8). Plant foods make up the majority of the diet in most developing countries (24). However, plant foods, especially cereals, do not commonly provide a nutritionally adequate diet (10). Cereals are generally a source of poor quality proteins, and micronutrients such as iron, zinc, iodine, and vitamin A are present in low levels or are not readily bioavailable.