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。目前，英国有几个人群面临维生素D缺乏症的风险，包括南亚人、年轻人和老年人。该提案的目的是克服障碍，无论是真实的还是感知的，实现用维生素d富集鸡蛋的商业潜力。我们有先前的证据表明，通过使用创新技术，这可以在商业蛋鸡中实现。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。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饪和储存鸡蛋的效果，以了解维生素D的稳定性是否受到这些变化的影响。我们还将对成人进行一项人类饮食干预研究，以确定食用营养丰富的鸡蛋是否会改善体内维生素D的状况，我们还将进行大规模的消费者研究，以了解此类产品是否有市场潜力，并确定如何克服这些产品所面临的或实际存在的障碍。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，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.