Overcoming the barriers to maximize the commercial potential of vitamin D enriched eggs

在英国，维生素D缺乏是一个常见的公共卫生问题。由于维生素D在很少的食物中大量存在，迫切需要开发含有更高维生素D的食物，这将增加人们对维生素D的营养摄入量。目前，英国有几个人群面临维生素D缺乏的风险，包括南亚血统的人、年轻人和高龄成年人。这项提议的目的是克服障碍，无论是真实的还是感知的，实现用维生素D丰富鸡蛋的商业潜力。我们先前有证据表明，通过使用创新的技术，可以在商业下蛋母鸡中实现这一点。我们将通过在母鸡身上进行工业规模饲养试验来实现我们的目标，在试验中，我们将在严格遵守欧洲饲料指南的同时，控制饲料的饮食组成。除了提高鸡蛋中维生素D的含量外，我们还希望通过改善鸟类的饮食来提高它们的福利。我们将测试在不同条件下烹调和储存鸡蛋的效果，以了解这些变化是否会影响维生素D的稳定性。我们还将在成年人中进行一项人类饮食干预研究，以确定食用浓缩鸡蛋是否会改善人体内的维生素D状态，我们还将进行大型消费者研究，以了解此类产品是否具有市场潜力，并确定如何克服任何感知或实际采用这些产品的障碍。该项目的受益者将是项目合作伙伴和英国鸡蛋行业，他们将从项目成果中获得经济上的好处，但重要的是，更广泛的公众将获得丰富的维生素D来源，以满足他们的饮食需求。该项目解决了通过营养解决国民健康问题的挑战。

Vitamin D deficiency is a common public health problem in 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. Currently there are several UK populations at risk from vitamin D deficiency, including people of South Asian origin, younger adults and very old adults. The aim of the proposal is to overcome the barriers, whether real or perceived, with realizing the commercial potential for the enrichment of eggs with vitamin D. We have prior evidence that this can be achieved in commercially laying hens through the use of innovative tehchnology. 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. As well as enhancing the content of eggs in vitamin D, we also expect to enhance the welfare of the birds through the improvement in their diet. We will test the effect of cooking and storing eggs in various conditions to understand if vitamin D stability is influenced by these changes. We will also undertake a human dietary intervention study in adults, to determine if consuming enriched eggs leads to improvements in vitamin D status in the body and we will undertake large consumer studies to gain an understanding of whether such products have market potential and identify how any perceived or real barriers to their adoption can be overcome. The beneficiaries of this project will be the project partners and the UK egg industry who will benefit economically from the project outcomes, but importantly the wider public who will be provided with a rich source of vitamin D to meet their dietary needs. The project addresses the challenge of addressing the health of the nation through nutrition.