Addressing Vitamin B12 deficiency through aeroponic fortification of a salad crop (Pisum sativum)

Eldridge, Bethany M.; Javvadi, Sree Gowrinadh; Perez-Moral, Natalia; Sweetman, Jessie; de Barros Dantas, Luíza Lane; Saha, Shikha; Lynch, Deirdre A.; Hunt, Thomas; Clough, Sophie E.; Toussaint, Jemal; Worrall, Andy; Manzoni, Lillian R.; Robinson, Nigel; Franklin, Keara A.; Edwards, Cathrina H.; Clarke, Jonathan; Farmer, Jack; Warren, Martin; Dodd, Antony N.

doi:10.1038/s42003-026-09764-y

Addressing Vitamin B12 deficiency through aeroponic fortification of a salad crop (Pisum sativum)

Tools

Eldridge, Bethany M., Javvadi, Sree Gowrinadh, Perez-Moral, Natalia, Sweetman, Jessie, de Barros Dantas, Luíza Lane, Saha, Shikha, Lynch, Deirdre A., Hunt, Thomas, Clough, Sophie E., Toussaint, Jemal, Worrall, Andy, Manzoni, Lillian R., Robinson, Nigel, Franklin, Keara A., Edwards, Cathrina H., Clarke, Jonathan, Farmer, Jack, Warren, Martin and Dodd, Antony N. (2026) Addressing Vitamin B12 deficiency through aeroponic fortification of a salad crop (Pisum sativum). Communications Biology, 9 (1). ISSN 2399-3642

Preview

PDF (s42003-026-09764-y) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Plants do not produce Vitamin B12, creating a nutrient insufficiency risk for those who do not consume animal-derived foods without supplementation. Furthermore, various diseases cause Vitamin B12 deficiency. Here, we establish an approach for B12 dietary supplementation that harnesses a horticultural technology to deliver the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of B12 within a single portion of a salad crop (pea shoots). We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach in a commercial and scalable growing environment, conducted an economic evaluation, find that it has versatility for growers, does not alter the product shelf-life, and that the B12 persists during cold-chain storage. Furthermore, the RDA of B12 is bioaccessible from this crop during simulated human digestion. Taken together, this provides a commercially-viable approach for dietary supplementation of B12 intake, and a roadmap for the development and evaluation of fortification strategies.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: Source data are included within the Supplementary Information of this study. Data for the graphs in the main figures are within Supplementary Data 1. All other data are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	medicine (miscellaneous),general biochemistry,genetics and molecular biology,general agricultural and biological sciences ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2700/2701
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School Faculty of Science Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Norwich Institute for Healthy Aging
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	30 Apr 2026 13:39
Last Modified:	30 Apr 2026 14:29
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102848
DOI:	10.1038/s42003-026-09764-y

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item