Understanding the Factors Influencing the Nutritional Quality of Your Crops


Nutrient profiling is an important element in the food and beverage sector. In general, food manufacturers use different tools to calculate the nutritional value of foods. Their goal is to make certain that the materials used and the products created match the Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion. If the foods do not meet the standards, the companies cannot legally make health or nutrition content claims. This shortcoming can affect the total sales of the food products in the market.

As a producer of crops, you will also be affected by the nutrition profiling in the food industry. In simple terms, if your crops cannot meet the nutritional content requirements demanded by manufacturers, your sales will suffer. This issue has become of particular importance in the recent past because more people are looking for food stuff without artificial nutrient fortification. Here are the important factors that you should consider if you would like to improve your crops' nutritional quality

Selection of Crop Varieties

If you are planning on boosting the nutritional value of your crops, you should think about the species varieties. The wrong seed will not thrive and even though it does, the nutrient profile will be less than optimal. When choosing your crops or seeds, you should look for varieties which have good local adaptability. They should be capable of growing well in your local climatic conditions. Also, they should show resistance to common local pests and diseases.

Quality of the Agricultural Soil

The quality of the soil on your land can have a positive or negative impact on the crops' nutritional quality. In simple terms, if your soil does not have ideal properties which encourage the uptake of water, minerals and nutrients, the produced crops will have low value. You should commission regular testing of soil samples from your land. The tests should show the general nutritional profile, mineral content, soil drainage and pH. You can modify the soil by adding enriching agents, pH adjusting compounds or even adding clean soil for better drainage.

Crop Farming Practices

Finally, you should note that farming practices will influence the nutritional quality of the harvest. Choosing the best agricultural procedures for specific plant species in specific regions will promote the growth of healthier food. Proper fertilisation techniques will increase the nutrients available for crop uptake. The use of high-quality water at the right time and weeding responsibly will also have a positive impact.

You should consult a nutritional profiling expert to learn more on raising the quality of your crops.

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About Me

Back To Basics?

My husband and I both took early retirement in our forties, and we have chosen to spend that retirement running a small hobby farm in the countryside. Plenty of retirees decide to do this; it's a hardworking but simple life, and our aim is to become as close to self-sufficient as possible as time goes by. Ours is a little different from most, however--because we run this little non-commercial farm just as a farm would have been run a hundred years ago or more. We have horses instead of tractors, and we do all our planting by hand. We work with the light and the seasons, and get as close as possible to nature. We've started this blog to share what we've learned about traditional agriculture with the world, and just maybe inspire some other people to explore this fantastic lifestyle too.

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