Abstract
Plants do not produce Vitamin B12, creating a nutrient insufficiency risk for those who do not consume animal-derived foods without supplementation. Furthermore, various diseases cause Vitamin B12 deficiency. Here, we establish an approach for B12 dietary supplementation that harnesses a horticultural technology to deliver the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of B12 within a single portion of a salad crop (pea shoots). We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach in a commercial and scalable growing environment, conducted an economic evaluation, find that it has versatility for growers, does not alter the product shelf-life, and that the B12 persists during cold-chain storage. Furthermore, the RDA of B12 is bioaccessible from this crop during simulated human digestion. Taken together, this provides a commercially-viable approach for dietary supplementation of B12 intake, and a roadmap for the development and evaluation of fortification strategies.
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Data availability
Source data are included within the Supplementary Information of this study. Data for the graphs in the main figures are within Supplementary Data 1. All other data are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by UKRI-BBSRC (Follow on Fund BB/X512229/1, FTMA BB/S507921/1, BB/W015749/1, SWBio DTP BB/M009122/1 and BB/T008741/1, NRPDTP BB/T008717/1, BBSRC Institute Strategic Programmes GEN BB/P013511/1, BRiC BB/X01102X/1, and FMH BB/X011054/1 with its constituent project BBS/E/F/000PR13630), the Wellcome Trust (EDESIA: Plants, Food and Health PhD programme 218467/Z/19/Z), and Innovate UK (for the Aeroponic Research & Development Centre at LettUs Grow). AND is funded by the European Union (ERC, MicroClock, 101166968). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. We acknowledge the foundational contributions of former colleague Deenah Morton (née Osman), David C. Robinson for P. sativum for hydroponic analyses, and Matthew James Smith for checking the TEA. Diagrams in Figs. 1, 3, 4 and Supplementary Fig. 2 prepared with biorender.com.
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B.M.E., S.G.J., N.P.M., J.S., S.S., D.A.L., L.R.M., T.H., S.E.C., J.T., and A.W. designed and conducted experimentation. B.M.E., N.P.M., J.S., L.L.B.D. analyzed and presented data. B.M.E., N.P.M., J.S., L.L.B.D., N.R., K.A.F., C.H.E., J.C., J.F., M.W. and A.N.D. interpreted data and wrote the manuscript. B.M.E., K.A.F., C.H.E., J.C., J.F., M.W., and A.N.D. conceived the project, obtained funding, and supervised the project.
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Authors J.T., A.W., L.R.M. and J.F. are employees of LettUs Grow, which designs and manufactures indoor farming technology. None of the authors in academic institutions have commercial or personal financial interests in LettUs Grow.
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Eldridge, B.M., Javvadi, S.G., Perez-Moral, N. et al. Addressing Vitamin B12 deficiency through aeroponic fortification of a salad crop (Pisum sativum). Commun Biol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09764-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09764-y
