Iron content and bioavailability in rice

Iron deficiency is probably the most widespread micronutrient deficiency in humans. Since rice is the main staple food for more than half of the global population, improving the iron content and bioavailability in rice is a perspective and an effective way to alleviate or even solve this problem. The present paper evaluates the iron content in different cereal foods (black rice, rice, red rice, sticky rice and millet) and different rice seeds as well as in the milling products, and the iron bioavailability of different forms. The data show that the iron content in black rice is higher than in the other rice types, and in rice chaff and husk the content is still fairly high. However, the iron content in rice and fine rice, which are the people's main staple food, is fairly low. As to the bioavailability of iron, it is fairly low in vegetable foods, almost at the level of 10%. Several methods have been applied to improve iron content and bioavailability in rice seed. Apart from breeding and genetic engineering, biochemical and physical approaches have frequently been used as prospective methods to regulate iron content and bioavailability in rice grains. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.