'Sunshine Egg': A novel and healthier vitamin D enriched food (Agri-Tech Catalyst - Experimental Development Project)

维生素D缺乏是英国常见的公共健康问题。由于维生素D在少数食物中含量很高，因此迫切需要开发富含维生素D的食物，从而增加人们对维生素D的营养摄入量。该提案的目的是开发富含维生素D的鸡蛋，这种鸡蛋的维生素D含量将比目前可用的鸡蛋高得多。有科学资料表明，这可以通过操纵母鸡的饮食来实现。我们将通过在母鸡中进行工业规模的饲养试验来实现我们的目标，我们将在严格遵守欧洲饲料指南的同时操纵饲料的膳食成分。该项目的受益者将是项目合作伙伴和英国蛋业，他们将从项目成果中获得经济利益，更广泛的公众将获得丰富的维生素D来源，蛋鸡群体的健康和福利可能从增加维生素D饲料成分中受益。

Vitamin D deficiency is a common public health problem within the UK. As vitamin D is found in significant amounts in few foods there is an urgent need to develop higher vitamin D containing foods, which will increase vitamin D nutritional intake of the population. The aim of the proposal is to develop vitamin D-enriched eggs which will have significantly higher vitamin D content than eggs currently available. There is scientific information that this may be achieved by manipulating hen diet. We will achieve our aim by conducting industry scale feeding trials in hens, where we will manipulate the dietary composition of feed while adhering to strict European feed guidelines. The beneficiaries of this project will be the project partners and the UK egg industry who will benefit economically from the project outcomes, the wider public will be provided with a rich source of vitamin D and the health and welfare of the laying hen population who may benefit from increasing vitamin D feed composition.