- NutraMaize announced it had received a two-year, $650,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
NutraMaize – an agriculture company with nutritionally enhanced orange corn currently being marketed through a line of premium milled products under the brand Professor Torbert’s Orange Corn – has received a two-year $650,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to demonstrate the health and pigmentation benefits of feeding orange corn to poultry on a commercial scale.
NutraMaize CEO Evan Rocheford noted that a previous Phase I SBIR grant from the USDA funded proof-of-concept studies that showed NutraMaize Orange Corn improves outcomes in poultry health and egg yolk pigmentation. And these results were published in the May 2021 issue and July 2021 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Poultry Science.
The goal of the Phase II project – which is titled “Nutritionally Enhanced Orange Corn: A Natural Domestic Source of Antioxidant Carotenoids for Improved Poultry and Consumer Well-Being” – is to demonstrate that corn could deliver the health benefits of carotenoids to poultry and consumers on a commercial scale. And carotenoids are natural antioxidant pigments that give many fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, their orange color, and health-benefiting reputations.
Rocheford pointed out that the project has 3 primary objectives that aim to demonstrate NutraMaize Orange Corn can provide value to the poultry industry at scale:
— That it could produce a number of economically relevant health benefits for both broilers and egg layers throughout their production cycles.
— That it could enhance the nutritional, visual, and functional properties of both poultry meat and eggs.
— That it could meet the needs of the poultry industry by being produced efficiently and affordably.
In order to achieve these objectives, NutraMaize will work with Darrin Karcher, associate professor of animal sciences in Purdue University’s College of Agriculture, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s National Poultry Research Center in Athens, Georgia. And this team will conduct research studies at Purdue’s Animal Sciences Research and Education Center and partner with grain farmers and commercial poultry producers to conduct field studies.
NutraMaize was co-founded by Evan and his father Torbert Rocheford, the Patterson Endowed Chair and a professor of agronomy in Purdue’s College of Agriculture. Over 20 years ago, Torbert Rocheford started naturally picking varieties of orange corn to help alleviate malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa as part of an international humanitarian effort called HarvestPlus. And Orange corn is licensed to NutraMaize through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. NutraMaize also received guidance from the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization hub whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. Both are managed by the Purdue Research Foundation.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our previous research shows that when used in poultry feed, NutraMaize Orange Corn has the potential to improve animal welfare, consumer well-being and producer profitability. We’ve shown that it can reduce the incidence and severity of footpad dermatitis, a common health problem for poultry, and significantly enhance the depth of color and health-benefiting antioxidant carotenoid content in egg yolks.”
“In addition to improving poultry health, the carotenoids found in NutraMaize Orange Corn have a number of well-documented health benefits for humans, such as significantly reducing the risk of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss among older Americans. This means that orange corn has the potential to improve animal welfare and reduce disease-related losses for producers while simultaneously improving consumer well-being by enhancing the nutritional quality of one of America’s most important protein sources – eggs.”
“We are particularly interested in working with organic egg producers since they have limited options for disease management and typically spend significantly more on expensive carotenoid supplements to ensure their yolks reach the dark color expected by their customers. For organic producers especially, NutraMaize Orange Corn has the opportunity to reduce feed costs, reduce losses associated with disease and deliver a darkly colored egg yolk with enhanced levels of health-benefiting carotenoids. It’s really a win-win-win for the producer, animal and consumer.”
“Our mission is to help improve the well-being of as many people and animals as possible. So, we want to talk to every poultry producer, feed mill, grain handler, farmer and seed company who sees the potential value NutraMaize Orange Corn can provide at scale.”
— NutraMaize CEO Evan Rocheford
