Comprehensive database of carotenoid contents in Ibero-American foods. A valuable tool in the context of functional foods and the establishment of recommended intakes of bioactives

Foods that are commonly consumed in the diet are considered to provide more than 40 different carotenoids. However, the content in carotenoids varies considerably in both qualitative and quantitative terms as a consequence of different genotypes, climatic conditions of the production area, and agronomic factors, among others. In this paper, analytical data, obtained by HPLC or UHPLC, of carotenoids in fruits and vegetables produced in Ibero-America have been compiled from peer-reviewed journals, organized in food categories, and documented in relation to the sampling and analytical quality system used. In addition to common products of the diet of the Ibero-American countries, other wild or little used fruit and vegetables have been included with the aim of contributing to promote and to value species and local varieties. The importance of the commodities containing carotenoids in food, health, agriculture, and biodiversity, and the need of their preservation, was evidenced in this work namely by the large differences in carotenoid content related to the locals of production and varieties, and the high levels of carotenoids in native fruits and vegetables. The contribution of these compounds to meet the needs of vitamin A as well as the necessity of establishing recommendation for the daily intakes of theses bioactive compounds were also discussed.

The present work has been carried out under the frame of the IBERCAROT network (CYTED, ref: 112RT0445, http://carotenoides.us.es), funded by the Ibero-American Science and Technology for Development Program (CYTED, http://www.cyted.org). IBERCAROT comprises over 50 teams (from universities, research institutes, small-to-large sized enterprises and cooperation for development bodies) from 15 IberoAmerican countries. AJMM acknowledges funding from the Spanish State Secretariat of Research, Development and Innovation (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, project ref. AGL2012-37610, co-funded by FEDER, and from the Andalusian Council of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment (project ref. CAROTINCO-P12-AGR-1287). AJMM, BOA, and DHM are members of the Spanish CaRed Network [Carotenoides en red: de los microorganismos y las plantas a los alimentos y la salud (CaRed). MINECO (Ref. BIO2015-71703-REDT)]. AZM acknowledges funding from FAPESP (Grant 2013/07914-8) and CNPq (grant 308484/2014-2). CO acknowledges funding from Red Nacional para la Bioprospeccion de Frutas Tropicales-RIFRUTBIO, COLCIENCIAS (Contract 0459-2013). DHM acknowledges funding from the Spanish Government (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness project AGL2014-53195R) co-funded by FEDER.

Peer Reviewed