SUBJECT CATEGORY: FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY INTRODUCTION

Food Biotechnology is relatively new and rapidly evolving branch of molecular biology, which started with the creation of the first recombinant gene 30 years ago. Modern biotechnology involves molecular techniques that use whole or parts of living organisms to produce or improve commercial products and processes. These techniques changing the way we live by improving the foods we eat, the beverages we drink, the clothes we wear, and the medicines we take. By the year 2050, it is expected that more than 10 billion people will be living on this planet, and it is also believed that there may not be enough resources to feed the world population. Biotechnology is the scientific field that offers the greatest potential to stop hunger today and help avoid mass starvation in the future. Recent developments in biotechnology will allow the production of more nutritious, safer, tastier, and healthier food. Scientific research trying to improve the nutritional value of staple crops such as rice, potatoes, and soybeans. This improvement can be achieved through the introduction of genes that encode for enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway of vitamins, essential amino acids, essential elements, and micronutrient binding proteins.

MICRONUTRIENT MALNUTRITION: EXTENT, COSTS, ALTERNATIVE INTERVENTIONS

Nutritionists working in developing countries been able to demonstrate that many children and adults, particularly women in their child bearing years, suffer more from a lack of essential vitamins and minerals in their diets than from a lack of calories. People are unaware that their diets lack these trace nutrients and lead to poor eyesight, impaired cognitive development and physical growth and even death. A strategy of breeding plants that enrich themselves and load high amounts of minerals and vitamins into their edible parts has the potential to substantially reduce the recurrent costs associated with fortification and supplementation. But this will be successful only if farmers are willing to adopt such varieties, if the edible parts of these varieties are palatable and acceptable to consumers, and if the incorporated micronutrients can be absorbed by the human body.

FUTURE TREND IN GM CROPS

The key areas of research and development (R&D) in plants are (i) agronomic traits and (ii) altered nutrition and composition. (i) Agronomic traits R&D in this area aims to introduce herbicide-resistance traits in a broader range of varieties of maize, soybean and canola, stack novel genes for insect resistance in plants. Virus resistance could be extremely important to improving agricultural productivity.
(ii)

Altered nutrition and composition Vitamin-A-enhanced rice: The best-known example of a GM crop conferring enhanced nutritional properties is rice containing a high level of beta-carotene a vitamin A precursor (so-called golden rice). Vitamin A is essential for increasing resistance to disease, protecting against visual impairment and blindness, and improving the chances of growth and development. Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem that contributes to severe illness and childhood mortality. This preventable condition increases the burden of disease on the health systems of developing countries. High iron rice: Prevalence of iron deficiency is very high in those parts of the world in which rice is the daily food staple. Rice has been transformed with three genes which increase iron storage in rice kernels and iron absorption from the digestive tract. Improved protein content: Greenhouse trials show that these tubers have 3545% more protein, and enhanced levels of essential amino acids. Removing allergens and antinutrients Increased antioxidant content

Attempts have been made to improve the photosynthetic system in plants through genetic modification. Crops such as maize and sugar cane are more efficient in converting energy into sugars than most broadleaf crop plants. By introducing genes for more efficient photosynthesis from one crop to another, efficiency could be improved by 10% with an enhancement in yield.

CONCLUSION
Modern methods of biotechnology enable the accelerated development of food products with recombined or improved traits with an increased specificity compared with conventional techniques