Nutritional quality of pro-vitamin A, biofortified maize

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) which is caused by a chronic inadequate dietary intake of vitamin A is a major public health problem in many developing countries. In SSA countries, VAD continues to be a serious public health problem despite implemented strategies to alleviate VAD. Provitamin A bio fortified maize, which has been developed through plant breeding, has the potential to act as an additional strategy to eliminate VAD. The feasibility of using provitamin A biofortified maize to alleviate VAD is critically dependent on consumer acceptance of the provitamin A biofortified maize. Generally, biofortification is used to influence the nutritional composition of the provitamin A-biofortified maize grain varieties, including carotenoid composition. Thus, in terms of grain quality and nutritional composition, provitamin A-biofortified maize varieties would be, overall, a better food source than the normal white maize. Biofortification can be achieved through conventional selective breeding or through genetic engineering or molecular breeding. It could help to identify the traits that the breeders need to focus on, in order to make the biofortified maize more acceptable.