While many of the nutritional compounds in functional foods are either naturally present or added during processing, some may be the result of agricultural breeding techniques, including conventional crossbreeding and biotechnology.

Crossbreeding a plant for a specific genetic trait, such as higher vitamin A content, can take as long as a decade or more. Modern biotechnology, however, makes it possible to select a specific genetic trait from any plant and incorporate it into the genetic code of another plant in a much shorter time span, and with more precision than crossbreeding allows.

Researchers are working with farmers around the world to develop dozens of functional foods through the use of this promising technology.