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What is Food Fortification? Why Milk, Salt and Cereals need to be fortified?

By FnF Desk | PUBLISHED: 13, Feb 2017, 17:41 pm IST | UPDATED: 13, Feb 2017, 18:17 pm IST

What is Food Fortification? Why Milk, Salt and Cereals need to be fortified? London: Familiar with iodised salt or calcium enriched milk? Food fortification or enrichment is a common practice that is carried out commercially. It refers to a process where essential micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, are added to food ingredients to make them more nutritious. This is done because sometimes post agriculture, the food products may lack certain vital nutrients due to poor soil conditions or other environmental factors. Also, in some regions the normal diet of the population lacks variety, where they consume only limited food items leading to dietary deficiencies. For example, one often hears tales of farmers living on a meal comprising boiled rice, a pinch of salt and a green chilli; or whole wheat rotis with pickle on the side. To curb such incidences of malnutrition, the staples are hence fortified.

In the early 90s, the WHO (World Health Organisation), FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations), and other nationally recognized organizations brought to light that there were billions of people worldwide who were suffering from a variety of micronutrient deficiencies, particularly Vitamin A, Iodine and Iron. The need for providing additional micronutrients in food sources was thus established.

WHO defines food fortification as "the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health."

While we are all familiar with fortified salts and milk, other ingredients that fall under this category include atta, maida, edible oil, butter, cheese, cereals, infant formulas, teas and other healthy beverages,

While fortified foods is a stepping stone towards preventing malnutrition on a large scale, health experts point out the fact that there could be chances of increased toxicity as well, if proper method of fortification is not carried out by the respective food brands. According to researchers of the study on Fortification of Foods with Vitamin D in India, done by University of California, "The supplementation strategy certainly has greater specificity of intervention and allows better dose adjustment. However, its disadvantages are: incurred user cost, low compliance, self-prescription and increased risk of toxicity. Fortification strategy has the advantage of universality of the intervention and greater compliance. Drawbacks of the fortification strategy are: the dose is a function of food quantity consumed; lower specificity; and varying standards legislated for each country and quality control and regulatory challenges pertaining to fortification levels with the manufacturers of fortified foods."

Therefore it is essential to set certain guidelines to prevent any mishap. Addressing this issue at hand, The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has set up a panel to draft guidelines on fortification of food items such as salt, milk, wheat flour, rice and edible oil, and prepare strategies to address malnutrition problem. While it is important to boost production and consumption of fortified foods, the guidelines for fortified food production is of greater priority.
olive oil

The FSSAI draft rules were operationalised in October even as they sought comments from stakeholders before finalising the final regulations. Standards have been set for fortification of salt with iodine and iron; of vegetable oil and milk with vitamin A and D; wheat flour and rice with iron, folic acid, zinc, vitamin B12, vitamin A and some other micro nutrients

"FSSAI has set up a new Scientific Panel on Food Fortification and Nutrition to address issues related to fortification of food," the regulator said in a statement. The Panel will identify critical nutritional gaps in the Indian diet in general as well as in specific target groups based on diet surveys and credible scientific evidence. It will define strategies to address nutritional needs of the general population and vulnerable groups, besides reviewing the standards for all suitable food fortifying vehicles.

The panel will also address regulatory and related technological issues, review proposals from industry using modern risk assessment methods, and prescribe standard sampling and test methods for effective monitoring, surveillance and enforcement of the relevant regulations. With an effective regulatory mechanism along with the continuous support of all the stakeholders, FSSAI expects that the problem of malnutrition in general and micronutrient malnutrition in particular would be overcome soon.

FSSAI has also unveiled a logo for fortified foods which may be used by food companies.