Australian researchers have announced a new variety of sweet corn that could help combat the leading cause of blindless in the western world.

Dr. O'Hare holds standard yellow seet corn on the right and his new variety on the left.

The so-called "Supergold" variety contains high levels of zeaxanthin, a naturally-occurring pigment linked to a lower occurrence of age-related macular degeneration.

The development, featured in industry journal Vegetables Australia, comes as the brainchild of University of Queensland's Dr. Tim O’Hare and industry body AUSVEG.

AUSVEG spokesperson Jeremy Story Carter described the cultivar as an Australian industry breakthrough.

“This new research is an exciting development for our local industry. Zeaxanthin is extremely important for eye health, but ordinarily you would need to eat an unfeasibly high amount of sweetcorn to achieve the levels required to battle macular degeneration," he said.

"This new ‘Supergold’ variety will contain enough of the pigment (20 micrograms per gram) in half a cob to help improve eye-health."

The spokesperson further explained that once the product is available for purchase in 2013, it will be geared toward health-conscious consumers who will be willing to pay a higher price, rather than serving as a replacement for standard corn products.

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