Microgreens: from trendy vegetables to functional food and potential nutrition security resource

Abstract

Starting as trendy high-value gourmet greens, today, microgreens have gained great popularity among consumers for their nutritional profile and high content of antioxidant compounds. Microgreens' nutritional profile is associated with the rich variety of colors, shapes, textural properties, and flavors obtained from sprouting a multitude of edible vegetable species, including herbs, herbaceous crops, and neglected wild edible species. Grown in a variety of soilless production systems, over the last five years in many urban and peri-urban areas of the world, microgreens have literally exploded as a cash crop produced in various protected culture systems and especially indoors through the use of artificial lighting systems. The ability to grow microgreens indoors in very small space, the short growth cycle required, and only minimum inputs required to produce them may allow the micro-scale production of fresh and nutritious vegetables even in areas that are considered food deserts. The current COVID-19 pandemic revealed the vulnerability of our food system and the need to address malnutrition issues and nutrition security inequality which could be exacerbated by potential future situations of emergency or catastrophe. Microgreens have great potential as an efficient food resilience resource, since they can provide essential nutrients and antioxidants. Using simple soilless production systems, seeds, and minimal inputs, nutrient-dense microgreens and shoots may be produced under different lighting conditions ranging from darkness to full sunlight or under artificial lighting in controlled environmental conditions, providing a rich source of essential nutrients and antioxidant compounds in a very short time. Moreover, using simple agronomic techniques, it is possible to produce biofortified or tailored functional micro-vegetables that could address specific dietary needs and/or address micronutrient deficiencies and nutrition security issues in emergency situations or limiting environmental conditions.

Zinc biofortification through seed nutri-priming using alternative zinc sources and concentration levels in pea and sunflower microgreens

“…Very little research is available on the biofortification of vegetables via nutrient priming ( Zou et al., 2014 ; Przybysz et al., 2016 ; Bączek-Kwinta et al., 2020 ). Microgreens could be an excellent choice for nutrient biofortification by nutrient priming since they are consumed at an early seedling stage, and nutrients can rapidly translocate from seed to greens ( Di Gioia et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, microgreens have high nutrient content and low antinutrient compounds like phytate ( Kyriacou et al., 2016 ; Di Gioia et al., 2017 ; Di Gioia et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Microgreens could be an excellent choice for nutrient biofortification by nutrient priming since they are consumed at an early seedling stage, and nutrients can rapidly translocate from seed to greens ( Di Gioia et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, microgreens have high nutrient content and low antinutrient compounds like phytate ( Kyriacou et al., 2016 ; Di Gioia et al., 2017 ; Di Gioia et al., 2021 ). We hypothesize that soaking seeds in a concentrated nutrient solution before seeding could enrich microgreens with specific minerals.…”

Island refuges for surviving nuclear winter and other abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophes

“…Food adaptations will be more important for locations with limited DEP in ASRS scenarios. These might include resilient seed stockpiles of winter‐hardy crops such as potatoes or sugar beets, more use of community gardens and urban farming of microgreens (Di Gioia et al., 2021), and “future foods” such as micro‐ and macroalgae, bivalve mollusks, or insects (Tzachor et al., 2021). Even if some of these “future foods” such as insect larvae were only used for manufacturing pet food or poultry feed, then this could still allow for diversion of other food for humans (e.g., maize for poultry going to feed humans).…”

Trial Protocol for Evaluating Platforms for Growing Microgreens in Hydroponic Conditions

“…Therefore, developing species-specific growth media to support year-round production and to enhance valuable antioxidant components is affordable and of utmost importance for the microgreens industry [19,22,43]. It is particularly important that the fundamental research into ensuring the safety and quality of this new addition to healthy diets, microgreens, is carried out so that the produce industry can avoid some of the problems that have challenged the mature produce and sprout industries during the past several decades [44,45].…”