 It has been engineered with three genes that biosynthesise beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, in the edible parts of rice.It is intended to produce a fortified food to be grown and consumed in areas with a shortage of dietary vitamin A, a deficiency which each year is estimated to kill 670,000 children under the age of 5 and cause an additional 500,000 cases of irreversible childhood blindness.The original golden rice produced 1.6μg/g of the carotenoids, with further development increasing this 23 times.