Soilless cultivation systems to producetailored microgreens for specificnutritional needs

BACKGROUND: The awareness of the importance of following dietary recommendations that meet specific biological require-ments related to an individual's health status has significantly increased interest in personalized nutrition. The aim of thisresearch was to test agronomic protocols based on soilless cultivation for providing consumers with new dietary sources ofiodine (I), as well as alternative vegetable products to limit dietary potassium (K) intake; proposed cultivation techniques wereevaluated according to their suitability to obtain such products without compromising agronomic performance. RESULTS: Two independent experiments, focused on I and K respectively, were conducted in a commercial greenhouse special-izing in soilless production. Four different species were cultivated using three distinct concentrations of I (0, 1.5 and 3 mg L-1)and K (0, 60 and 120 mg L-1). Microgreens grown in I-rich nutrient solution accumulate more I, and the increase is dose-dependent. Compared to unbiofortified microgreens, the treatments with 1.5 and 3 mg L-1of I resulted in 4.5 and 14 timeshigher I levels, respectively. Swiss chard has the highest levels of K (14 096 mg kg-1of FW), followed by rocket, pea and radish.In radish, rocket and Swiss chard, a total reduction of K content in the nutrient solution (0 mg L-1) resulted in an average reduc-tion of 45% in K content. CONCLUSION: It is possible to produce I-biofortified microgreens to address I deficiency, and K-reduced microgreens for chronickidney disease-affected people. Species selection is crucial to customize nutritional profiles according to specific dietaryrequirements due to substantial mineral content variations across different species.