Research centers, companies and other entities in the agri-food field have launched the Go Superfood project, which aims to improve, through innovative agronomic fertilization practices, the characteristics of conventional crops and turn them into potential superfoods.
The Microbiome, Nutrition and Health group of the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA), led by the researcher Yolanda Sanz, is one of the groups that make up the project.
The project will develop a specific field protocol to obtain fruits and vegetables –such as lettuce, carrot, tomato, zucchini, eggplant, pepper, cucumber, broccoli, tangerine, orange, lemon, melon and watermelon– nutritionally enriched by techniques that intensify the mineral and micronutrient content of high added value. In addition to these nutritional goals, which contribute to improving the health of the population, the new production processes aim to reduce the effects and losses of crops derived from the mineral poverty of the lands due to climate change, take care of the soils and improve the fixation of greenhouse gases. Go Superfood seeks to benefit different sectors of the population; from the farmers who decide to apply these solutions, since they will be able to increase the productivity, sustainability and profitability of their production; even to consumers, helping them to adopt a healthier lifestyle, by providing the food industry with a greater offer of functional, bio-healthy and high nutritional value products whose market niche does not stop growing. The products derived from the Go Superfood project will also serve to respond to different public health problems derived from malnutrition.
This is a national project with the participation of the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (ASAJA), AMC INNOVA-AMC Group, the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC), INNOPLANT-Technology and Research Agrícola S.L., the Spanish Association for Development and Technology Transfer in Agriculture and Livestock (ASETAGA) and AGROISA Maquinaria Oleícola. The project is financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the European Union through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). Part of the project will take place at AVA-ASAJA's Finca Sinyent, in Polinyà de Xúquer (Valencia), where SuperFood Biotech partners will experiment and transfer the techniques provided to farmers through a procedure manual that allows them to replicate the tests in their crops.