SCRI led a European project to discover how to make healthy food even better for us.

Scientists won a share of European Union funding worth £2.5 million (€3.9 million) to find ways of boosting the nutritional value of crops. The Develonutri project focuses on plant metabolites. These are small, natural compounds found in grains, fruit and vegetables and play a key role in human health and wellbeing.

The work was undertaken by a consortium of European scientists and companies led by SCRI’s Dr Derek Stewart.

For many foods, the journey from the farm gate to the dinner plate is often accompanied by large reductions in the level of the natural compounds that we know are beneficial to health. This can lead to chemicals having to be added back into the food to supplement these losses.

As part of this project SCRI is looking at the natural variation in the health beneficial compounds and micro nutrients in three main staple food crops: potatoes, wheat and tomatoes.

The research is following these products through many post-harvest processing and transportation chains to establish to what extent - and where - the nutrients are being lost.

In a similar project we are studying the health benefits of the once staple Scottish food; oats. Working with other researchers, we hope to establish the health benefits of oats and to identify how the nutritional quality of oats could be enhanced.

If we can deliver nutritionally enhanced crops there’ll be huge benefits for human health and also for the farmers who grow them.