The future is bright: Biofortification of common foods can improve vitamin D status

Vitamin D Biofortification of Pork May Offer a Food-Based Strategy to Increase Vitamin D Intakes in the UK Population

“…Additionally, improvements within the current paper were only modeled based on altering only one food type (pork) within a main food group (meat). Even greater improvements would be expected if this practice was implemented across a wider animal food portfolio to account for dietary diversity and include, for example, chicken, beef and eggs, of which on-farm evidence provides proof of concept ( 24 , 42 – 44 ). Regardless of the biofortification food carrier, it would be short-sighted and ill-advised to focus on a single commodity as this would undoubtedly exclude a proportion of the population who identify as low or non-consumers.…”

“…Human randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have investigated the efficacy of biofortified mushrooms and bread baked with UV-treated yeast. Whilst bread had poor bioavailability, mushrooms may be an alternative biofortification food vehicle to increase 25(OH)D 2 concentrations amongst non-meat consumers ( 24 ). Future research should further explore bioavailability of UV-treated yeast to confirm these findings.…”

“…Results may otherwise under-represent the true impact of biofortified pork, with an even greater increase hypothesized if 25(OH)D was independently considered. This is owed to the natural presence of 25(OH)D in pork meat ( 59 , 60 ), further increases following biofortification practices ( 24 , 38 ) and suggestions this metabolite may be five times more potent than parental vitamin D to increase circulating 25(OH)D concentrations ( 25 , 61 ). Although changes to 25(OH)D concentrations were not within the scope of the present study, depending upon absorptive capacity and baseline status, an increase of 1 μg of vitamin D 3 has been reported to equate to an approximate increase of 0.7–1.0 nmol/L of serum 25(OH)D concentrations ( 62 ).…”

“…Biofortification refers to the endogenous increase of nutrients during the growth phase, either in animal-based or plant-based foods. Evidence has shown the plausibility of increasing the vitamin D content in commodity animal-based foods such as pork, beef, chicken and eggs, as well as mushrooms ( 24 ). Amongst animal foods, vitamin D biofortification can be achieved by either UVB radiation and/ or feed alteration.…”

Medium and long-chain structured triacylglycerol enhances vitamin D bioavailability in an emulsion-based delivery system: combination of in vitro and in vivo studies

“…Vitamin D (VitD) is a fat-soluble micronutrient necessary for maintaining and regulating calcium homeostasis, 1 musculoskeletal health, 2 and adaptive and innate immunity. 3,4 Although people can obtain VitD through sunlight exposure and consumption of VitD-rich foods, 5 epidemiological studies indicate that the occurrence of VitD deficiency and insufficiency are widespread. 6 More importantly, despite widespread food fortification, VitD deficiency continues to grow owing to its relatively high hydrophobicity, high sensitivity to degradation, and limited bioavailability.…”