Biofortification of milk with selenium: effect on nutritional bioavailability and action on human health

Abstract

Cow's milk is one of the most important foods in human nutrition by providing significant amounts of key nutrients for our body and at an affordable cost to all social classes. In the process of Biofortification, nutrients are given to lactating cows which produces milk differentiated and the same is being tested on rats as an experimental model, aiming nutrition and human health. This project aims to demonstrate the use of biofortified milk for human consumption obtained by supplementation of different sources of selenium in the diet of dairy cows. The antioxidant activity of selenium, which are involved in cellular protection against attack by reactive oxygen species, can be of great importance to health, since the concentrations of these nutrients can be increased in milk and because they are deficient in the academic students and elderly of São Paulo state. This thematic project is composed of three projects, which will address various aspects of milk biofortification comprising ` the speciation of the micronutrient selenium in milk originating from three different forms (amino acid, yeast and inorganic) of supplementation in the diet of the cow; acomparison between biofortified and fortified milk with selenium concerning composition, oxidative stability and acceptability; b bioavailability of these nutrient and their influence on the expression of GPx genes, P and W selenoproteins, using rats as an animal model consuming biofortified and fortified milk It is believed that the biofortified food has a better utilization by the body than the enriched food. There is currently a great demand for biofortified food and little action on the response of this human nutrition and health. This project about Milk Biofortification is important because it responds to public policy and directly integrates the animal science research with surveys of nutrition and human medicine applied and covers the entire dairy supply chain and may, in the future, prevent nutritional deficiencies. (AU)