Food ingredients with new attributes, including health benefits, are anticipated from a research programme using modern genetics tools to develop technologies that enhance plant carbohydrates and colour. 

The five-year government-funded programme known as ‘From Tools to Traits’ is expected to provide carbohydrates that are good for us and natural food colours that will help reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in foods.

Crop & Food Research’s Kevin Davies manages the programme and says researchers will gain further understanding of plant carbohydrate and carotenoid pigment pathways which will help in the development of new products and technologies along the value chain from new seed exports to food ingredients.
”The science aims to help meet consumer demand for foods that offer a nutrition and/or health advantage and to meet the desire for ‘clean label’ ingredients, like natural colorants, that are sourced from plants,” Dr Davies says. “Many of the plant traits we can enhance will provide producers with distinctive crops with desirable attributes.”

The research aims to develop carbohydrates that have a controlled energy release during digestion for improved health properties. The new technology will be developed first in peas and potatoes, and then transferred to grain crops. Scientists will also model systems to investigate technologies to produce starches with novel functional properties.

Research on the carotenoid pigment pathway will look to develop tools to provide vegetables, food and feed products with distinct colours and improved health properties.

Carotenoids are one of the major groups of plant pigments typically providing yellow to red colours in fruit, foliage, vegetables, grains and flowers. Increasing carotenoid intake in our diets may have a range of long-term health benefits such as reducing the incidence of cancer, and they are also the basis for vitamin A production by the liver.

Crop & Food Research’s chief scientist Julian Lee says the ‘From Tools to Traits’ research is strategically important for the future development of agricultural and arable crops alike. Creation of new cultivars integrated with food science and technology in New Zealand will help to ensure future growth in the industries linked to these sectors.

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