Superyellow sweetcorn for super vision

We’re often told to eat our carrots to ensure good eyesight, but rarely does sweetcorn get a mention when it comes to eye health. A new variety of ‘superyellow’ sweetcorn could challenge the carrot’s reputation as the most eye-friendly vegetable.

The recently developed Supergold variety is high in zeaxanthin, a naturally occurring pigment that gives corn its distinctive yellow colour. Studies have demonstrated a link between the high intake of foods containing zeaxanthin with a lower occurrence of age-related macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of blindness in the western world.

“Zeaxanthin is extremely important for eye health, but ordinarily you would need to eat an unfeasibly high amount of sweetcorn to achieve the levels required to battle macular degeneration,” said Jeremy Story Carter, spokesperson for AUSVEG, the industry body representing Australian vegetable growers.

“This new ‘Supergold’ variety will contain enough of the pigment (20 micrograms per gram) in half a cob to help improve eye-health.”

The Supergold sweetcorn was developed by Dr Tim O’Hare and his team at the University of Queensland’s Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation. The biggest challenge the team faced was achieving a consistent, uniform colour.

“Research showed that even if the corn contained great health benefits, consumers were unwilling to purchase a product that looked unusual and was uneven in colour,” Story Carter said. “Achieving a consistent, deep-yellow colour in the corn was one of the key challenges this project was able to overcome.”

While the Supergold will be put out for commercial tender in 2013, it is not intended to replace existing lines of sweetcorn in the market. Instead, it will be marketed to health-conscious consumers who are willing to pay more for foods with extra health benefits.

Findings from Dr O’Hare’s research have been published in Vegetables Australia, a magazine produced by AUSVEG.