Fortification of beverages for prevention of maternal and infant mortality

营养素缺乏对世界近三分之一的人口产生不利影响。缺铁是每年造成20多万产妇死亡和约500万儿童死亡的主要原因。这个问题对妇女的影响最严重;例如，在印度，50%以上的妇女和高达70%的幼儿缺铁。有许多方案可以解决这个问题。补铁需要保健监督，而强化的制成品不能提供给农村妇女，因为她们不参与现金经济。 然而，茶在南亚是普遍和统一消费的，是世界上消费量第二大的饮料，可能是微量营养素的理想载体。不幸的是，茶中的多酚与铁和其他金属反应，形成不可生物利用的不可口的复合物，并降低茶的有益效果。 该计划的目标是开发一个技术平台，用于强化茶，茶饮料和由含有高含量多酚的本地植物制备的饮料，最终目标是降低孕产妇和婴儿死亡率，并通过这些广泛消费和喜爱的饮料提供更好的营养。 我们已经开发了确保清茶中铁的生物利用度的技术，通过使用一种竞争性螯合剂，以生物可利用的形式结合铁，并开发了一种分析技术，用于量化任何铁-单宁复合物。虽然该系统生产的茶具有可接受的颜色和味道，但当茶通过与牛奶一起煮沸的传统方法制备时，颜色是不可接受的。因此，该计划的具体目标是了解形成非生物可利用螯合物的化学，包括在茶，口腔，胃和小肠中存在的pH值和温度下茶多酚存在下锌，铁和钙的相互作用，并开发通过化学和物理手段控制微量营养素的递送和释放的技术。 由于螯合剂或抗氧化剂不太可能防止茶叶变色，铁，锌和螯合剂将被微胶囊化在可食用聚合物中，这些聚合物在高温下稳定，但会溶解在胃中。我们还将测试微乳液，皮克林乳液和自组装微乳液作为微量营养素载体在茶的存在。该计划的总体技术目标是开发一个技术平台，可以扩展到生产有效的强化茶和茶饮料，保持添加的微量营养素的生物利用度，可以通过传统技术制备并保留理想的感官特征-颜色，味道和香气。该技术平台将提供定制的微量营养素组合，可用于通过慈善和商业渠道满足世界各地的营养需求。

Micronutrient deficiencies adversely affect nearly a third of the world's population. Iron deficiency is a major contributor to more that 200,000 maternal deaths, and to the death some 5 million children annually. The problem most severely affects women; e.g. in India more than 50% of women and up to 70% of young children are iron deficient. There are many programs to address this problem. Iron supplementation requires health care supervision and fortified manufactured foods do not reach rural women, who do not participate in the cash economy. Tea, however, is universally and uniformly consumed in South Asia, and is the second most consumed beverage in the world, and may be an ideal vehicle for micronutrients. Unfortunately, the polyphenols in tea react with iron and other metals to form unpalatable complexes that are not bioavailable, and reduce the beneficial effects of tea. The goal of the proposed program is the development of a technology platform for the fortification of tea, tea-based beverages and beverages prepared from native plants containing high levels of polyphenols, with the ultimate goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality and providing improved nutrition through these broadly consumed and loved beverages. We have developed technology for ensuring bioavailability of iron in clear tea, by using a competing chelating agent that binds iron in a bioavailable form, and developed an analytical technique for quantifying any iron-tannin complexes. While the system produces tea of acceptable colour and taste, when tea is prepared by the traditional method of boiling with milk, the colour is unacceptable. Therefore, the specific objectives of the program are to develop an understanding of the chemistry of formation of non-bioavailable chelates, including the interaction of Zn, Fe and Ca in the presence of tea polyphenols at pH and temperature present in the tea, the mouth, stomach and the small intestine, and to develop technology for controlling the delivery and release of the micronutrients by chemical and physical means. As it is unlikely that the discolouration of tea could be prevented by chelating agents or antioxidants, Fe, Zn and chelators will be microencapsulated in edible polymers that are stable at high tea temperatures but will dissolve in the stomach. We will also test microemulsions, Pickering emulsions and self-assembled microemulsions as micronutrient carriers in the presence of tea. The overall technical goal of the program is to develop a technology platform that can be expanded to produce effective fortified tea and tea-based beverages, that maintain the bioavailability of added micronutrients and can be prepared by traditional techniques and retain desirable organoleptic characteristics - colour, taste and aroma. The technology platform will deliver customized combinations of micronutrients that can be used for addressing nutritional needs through philanthropic and commercial channels throughout the world.