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

Eldridge B, Javvadi S, Perez-Moral N, Sweetman J, De Barros Dantas L, Saha S, Lynch DA, Hunt T, Clough SE, Toussaint J, Worrall A, Manzoni LR, Robinson N, Franklin KA, Edwards C, Clarke J, Farmer J, Warren M, Dodd AN. (2026)

Communications Biology

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.

Communications Biology

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