Plant biotechnology can make important contributions to food security and nutritional improvement. For example, the development of 'Golden Rice' by Professor Ingo Potrykus was a milestone in the application of gene technology to deliver both increased nutritional qualities and health improvement to wide sections of the human population. Mineral nutrient and protein deficiency as well as food se...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Monitoring food intake of patients during hospitalization using simple methods and minimal training is an ongoing problem in hospitals. Therefore, there is a need to develop and validate a simple, easy to use, and quick tool that enables staff to estimate dietary intake. Thus, this study aimed to develop and validate the Pictorial Dietary Assessment Tool (PDAT). SUBJECTS...

Millet is unusually drought resistant and consequently there is a progressive increase in the use of these grains as a human food staple, especially in large areas of India and sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of this study was to determine the absorption of iron and zinc from pearl millet biofortified with 2 micronutrients that are typically deficient in nonfortified, plant-based diets globally...

Yams (Dioscorea spp.) are a multispecies crop with production in over 50 countries generating ~50 MT of edible tubers annually. The long-term storage potential of these tubers is vital for food security in developing countries. Furthermore, many species are important sources of pharmaceutical precursors. Despite these attributes as staple food crops and sources of high-value chemicals, Dioscore...

Viral diseases are a key constraint in the production of staple food crops in lesser developed countries. New and improved disease control methods are developed and implemented without consideration of the selective pressure they impose on the virus. In this paper, we analyse the evolution of within-plant virus titre as a response to the implementation of a range of disease control methods. We ...

Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important cereal grains in the world today and serves as a staple food source for more than half of the world's population. Research into when, where, and how rice was brought into cultivation and eventually domesticated, along with its development into a staple food source, is thus essential. These questions have been a point of nearly continuous research...

Does producing staple food locally cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions than food sourced through imports from another continent? To address this question we used a spatial optimization approach that minimized greenhouse gas emissions from production and transport of five food commodities (barley, maize, oil, sugar and wheat) and compared this to a setting of local production where distances be...

Akin osteotomy is a common component of hallux valgus surgery. Holding the osteotomy in good position with a well placed staple can prove difficult. To aid this, a marker pen is used to apply ink to the tip of the proximal limb of the staple (Fig 1). A hole is drilled in the distal bone and the non-inked staple limb is inserted while the osteotomy is held in the desired position. This causes tr...

Recently, there has been considerable interest in the satiety inducing properties of inulin type fructans (ITF) as a tool for weight management. As a staple food, breads provide an excellent vehicle for ITF supplementation however the integrity of the ITF chains and properties upon bread making need to be assessed. Breads enriched with 12% fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and 12% inulin were baked ...