Orange corn could make eggs more nutritious

Feeding nutritionally enhanced orange corn to layer hens could result in brighter pigmented, healthier egg yolks.

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White eggs on a concrete table. One egg is cracked and you can see the yellow yolk
White eggs on a concrete table. One egg is cracked and you can see the yellow yolk
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Feeding nutritionally enhanced orange corn to layer hens could result in brighter pigmented, healthier egg yolks.

“Orange corn provides the opportunity to simultaneously improve the well-being of poultry and consumers by delivering more health-benefitting carotenoids at scale,” NutraMaize CEO Evan Rocheford, explained.

Layers fed orange corn produce darker egg yolks that contain higher levels of the antioxidant carotenoids. Carotenoids are naturally found in many fruits and vegetables and are responsible for giving carrots their orange color. 

In people, dietary carotenoids help decrease the risk of eye disease and certain cancers.

“Eggs are widely consumed and the carotenoids they contain are highly bioavailable, so if we can double the health benefiting carotenoids in eggs using NutraMaize Orange Corn, it’s going to have a huge impact on the amount people are consuming and absorbing through their diets,” he added.

Nutritional benefits for poultry too

Orange corn also has health benefits for poultry. 

According to research published in Poultry Science, broilers fed orange corn had reduced severity and incidence of footpad dermatitis compared to those fed yellow or white corn.

In addition, preliminary research suggests that orange corn could potentially help poultry recover more quickly from diseases like coccidiosis.

“Carotenoids probably aren’t going to prevent the bird from getting infected, but they are going to help the bird’s immune system respond to that challenge more effectively,” said Rocheford.

Phase II research

NutraMaize recently received a two-year $650,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“We think that the Phase I research that we’ve conducted so far has really only scratched the surface in terms of the potential benefits of orange corn and the carotenoids it delivers,” Rocheford said.

The goal of the Phase II research is to further demonstrate the health benefits of orange corn for layers and broilers, prove that orange corn can enhance the nutritional, visual and functional properties of poultry meat and eggs and show that orange corn can meet the needs of the commercial poultry industry.

The project will be conducted in conjunction with Purdue University's College of Agriculture and the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s National Poultry Research Center
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