Programs

Nutrition

• Determine Nutrient Target Levels
• Evaluate Nutrient Retention Levels in Crops and Food
• Evaluate Nutrient Impact on Human Health

The HarvestPlus strategy begins and ends with nutrition research. Nutritionists ensure that that the levels of micronutrients bred in food crops are sufficient to have a measurable impact on human nutritional status.

Nutritionists work with plant breeders to establish breeding targets for specific micronutrients. These are based on the food intake of target populations, nutrient losses during storage and processing, and the bioavailability of nutrients from staple foods consumed by target populations. HarvestPlus nutrition teams measure the effects of processing, storage and cooking methods on nutrient retention within biofortified crops and determine optimal practices best suited to target populations in order to minimize nutrient loss. Nutrient absorption by the body is of paramount importance. Nutritionists determine the efficiency of nutrient absorption, and effect on nutritional status, from biofortified foods, through controlled experiments. These studies guide plant breeders in refining their breeding targets. The effectiveness of biofortified foods in improving human nutrition in uncontrolled real world conditions is also evaluated.

University partners will help identify nutritionally optimal breeding strategies and conduct nutrition efficacy trials. Impact studies will involve collaboration among these university partners, social scientists at the relevant Future Harvest centers, and local partners. Analyses related to human nutrition will be conducted in four areas:

• Basic studies will investigate optimal strategies (that is, identifying breeding objectives) for maximizing nutrient bioavailability through increasing micronutrient density, reducing anti-nutrients, and/or increasing promoter compounds.
• The USDA-PSNL will undertake in vitro and animal studies to provide initial screening of bioavailability for promising genotypes for each crop.
• Efficacy trials involving human subjects to test nutritionally improved lines for each crop will be undertaken in developing countries under the direction of nutritionists from developed-country universities in collaboration with developing-country nutritionists. Areas will be selected in which the prevalent diets are representative of wide geographic regions and in which two or more of the crops under study are staples, thus incorporating the food-system approach.
• In the final phase of the project, once nutritionally improved varieties have been adopted, community-based impact studies will be undertaken by these same teams of nutritionists in selected countries, including an evaluation of the effectiveness of the nutritionally improved varieties in reducing micronutrient malnutrition.

Publications on Nutrition