Food from Genetically Engineered Plants: Tomato with Increased β-Carotene, Lutein, and Xanthophylls Contents

The cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) plants and their use as food or feed are still heavily debated, even though the first field trials were carried out more than 30 years ago. Different approaches have been used by governments to draw up regulations to enable the safe application of GE technology. In some cases they have hampered its implementation in agriculture and the food sector industry. A notable example is the European Union, where the cultivation of GE crops is still negligible as compared to global biotech crop hectarage. The use of GE feed, on the other hand, has had a steady increase in all countries. GE biofortified tomato for carotenoids with biological functions, namely provitamin A, lutein, and zeaxanthin, could have interesting market potentiality in the near future. GE tomato with high provitamin A content is already available (HighCaro) and tomato lines producing fruits enriched in macular pigments are under development.