Biofortified feed crops: bridging plant biotechnology and animal-derived functional foods

Abstract

Micronutrient deficiency continues to be a significant global nutritional problem, especially in populations relying on staple diets with limited micronutrient diversity. Biofortification presents a sustainable way to enhance crop nutritional quality through methods like agronomic practices, traditional breeding, microbial interventions, nanotechnology, transgenic techniques, and genome editing. This review critically explores these strategies, focusing on their application to feed and forage crops, which are often neglected in biofortification discussions. It examines factors affecting micronutrient uptake, accumulation, transport, and bioavailability in plants, as well as their transfer from biofortified feed to animals and subsequently into milk, meat, and eggs. The review also discusses how nutrient-enriched feed impacts animals health, productivity, and the nutritional value of animals products. Importantly, it highlights gaps in understanding the efficiency of nutrient transfer across the soil–plant–feed–animal–food–human pathway, especially how increased micronutrient levels in forage improve animals mineral status and human nutrition. Finally, the review points to emerging opportunities to integrate crop biofortification with animals nutrition efforts, including precision breeding, genome editing, microbial methods, and targeted nutrient management. An integrated approach like this could extend biofortification’s benefits beyond human food crops, supporting better feed quality, enhanced animals productivity, healthier animal-derived functional foods, and more sustainable, nutritionally resilient food systems.