Dig deeper for micronutrient benefits

Manufacturers could benefit from products with a higher micronutrient content if they studied ingredients further down the supply chain, according to a food innovation researcher at Sheffield Hallam University.

“There’s a huge opportunity for manufacturers to think about products beyond the farm gate,” said Dr Wayne Martindale. “Rather than ingredients turning up at the factory with a high nutritional profile as a result of processing, companies can look at micronutrient quality [in crops] and how this can be enhanced.”

He claimed that some sectors had already recognised some of the benefits of crop analysis: “A baker always knows how the quality of wheat can change his product.” But Martindale said that this was just the tip of the iceberg. ”I think we can get more and more refined, so that we can actually say: ‘this bread has a lower allergenicity index.’”

Martindale noted that processors had already recognised that micronutrients could affect products from a manufacturing viewpoint. “It has happened with nitrogen in sugar beet in terms of manufacturing efficiencies. British Sugar gets its farmers to reduce nitrogen that is placed on sugar beet crops to increase white sugar yield.” But he claimed that firms have not yet woken up to the benefits in terms of consumer effect.

Cereals were the main window of opportunity with the potential for calcium, selenium and iron fortification, he said, adding that UK soils were relatively young compared to the rest of the world.

However, he warned that biotechnology was a double-edged sword because consumers viewed nutrients from the soil as natural, but that they were also wary of new technologies. Nevertheless, he said: “If there are clearly added benefits, then I think consumers will respond.”