A University of Toronto (U of T) professor has won a $250,000 research grant to develop an iron-fortified variety of tea that could reduce anemia and maternal deaths around the world.
Levente Diosady, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at U of T, received one of 22 research grants awarded through the Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development competition on July 31, in Washington, D.C.
Saving Lives at Birth rewards innovative approaches to reducing child and maternal mortality, according to the organization’s website.
The grants are jointly sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Norwegian government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), and Grand Challenges Canada, which is funded by the Canadian government.
Diosady was the only Canadian to receive a grant, out of a pool of 400 applicants, according to Karlee Silver, director of targeted challenges at Grand Challenges Canada.
Millions of women living in areas where iron deficiency is rampant consume tea on a daily basis, making Diosady’s use of a “simple, culturally appropriate vehicle highly attractive,” Silver said.
Tea contains a small amount of iron, as well as a compound called tannin.
“[Tannins] are useful in food because they are antioxidants, but they react with metals, specifically iron, and form a very strong complex which is not viable—so the body doesn’t make any use of it,” Diosady said.
To prevent this chemical reaction, Diosady said he is developing a technique to coat the iron in a capsule smaller than the width of a human hair.
The encapsulated iron particles would bind to the tea leaves and protect the iron from reacting with the tannin before reaching the gut, allowing the body to absorb the iron, he explained.
Silver said altering something like tea while improving women’s health “is one of those keys we’re always trying to find.”
Food fortification is a common solution to malnutrition, she said, but the idea of fortifying tea is something she has never seen in the competition before.
“In recent years we’re kind of realizing you’ve got to go outside the box a bit and think of what people consume on a daily basis, rather than trying to add something to their diet,” she said.
Not everyone has the technical capabilities to put that simple idea into action, Silver added.
Diosady has previously been successful in the fortification of iron and iodine in salt, another product commonly used in the developing world.
“We attempted salt because it was technically simpler, and when this was more or less under control we then started to examine whether we could do the same thing with tea,” Diosady said.
While too much iron can be unhealthy, Diosady’s fortified tea would contain 30 per cent of the daily recommended value and would be designed to “top off” the iron people already receive in their normal diet, he said.
More than 30 per cent of the world’s population, or two billion people, suffer from iron deficiency anemia, according to the World Health Organization. In addition to causing child and maternal mortality, and impairing mental development, anemia significantly reduces work productivity in adults.
The only way to get fortified food to people who are poor and living in rural environments, according to Diosady, “is to give them something they actually buy.”
