‘Biofortified’ rice improves health of its consumers

Iron-biofortified or nutritionally enhanced rice can significantly improve the nutritional status of people who consume them.

This was found in a nine-month (2004-2005) study that involved four academic and research institutions in the United States and the Philippines.

Results of the research were highlighted in a report titled "Iron-Biofortified Rice Improves the Iron Stores of Non-Anemic Filipino Women" published in the Journal of Nutrition, 2005.

The report was authored by Dr. Jere Haas of the Cornell University-Division of Nutritional Sciences in New York City, USA; Dr. John Beard and Dr. Laura Murray-Kolb of the Pennsylvania State University-Department of Nutritional Sciences; USA; the late Prof. Angelita del Mundo and Prof. Angelina Felix, both of UP Los Baños (UPLB); and Dr. Glenn Gregorio of the Los Baños-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

The authors oversaw the study in which 192 religious sisters in 10 convents in the Philippines included biofortified rice in their diets.

"After nine months, the women had significantly higher levels of total body iron in their blood," the report stated.

The iron-dense variety of rice used in the research (IR68144-3B-2-2-3) was developed and grown at IRRI and then tested by the international team of researchers from Cornell University, Pennsylvania State University, UPLB, and IRRI.

The research initiative was spearheaded and funded by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with support from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Micronutrient Initiative (MI) of Canada.

HarvestPlus, an international research program focused on breeding crops for better nutrition and led by IPFRI and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia (South America), will continue to work with the research findings and partners.

"This study documents a major breakthrough in the battle to prevent micronutrient malnutrition," said Dr. Robert Zeigler, IRRI director general. "These results are especially important for rice-eating regions of the world where more than three billion of the world’s poor and undernourished live."

Dr. Zeigler added: "We now know that if plants are bred with higher levels of iron and other micronutrients, they will improve the nutritional status of people who consume them. This has dramatic implications."

Through the "biofortification" process, plant breeders are developing staple foods with higher levels of essential micronutrients.

"In the past," HarvestPlus director Howarth Bouis also noted, "we relied on supplements and fortification to overcome vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Now we know that biofortification also works, giving us an additional tool in this crucial battle."

The United Nations and other donors spend millions of dollars a year on iron supplements and other strategies to ease the enormous damage wrought by iron deficiency and related conditions.

Iron deficiency affects a child’s physical and mental development, and each year causes more than 60,000 maternal deaths during pregnancy and childbirths.

Dr. Zeigler concluded: "This may be the start of a nutritional revolution – a very appropriate follow-on from the Green Revolution and one that is desperately needed by millions of the world’s poor and undernourished."