Food fortification involves adding essential vitamins and minerals to commonly consumed foods during processing, improving their nutritional value. This practice is safe, cost-effective, and crucial for preventing micronutrient deficiencies, which pose serious health risks. Various methods, including large-scale fortification, biofortification, and point-of-use fortification, are employed to address nutrient deficiencies and promote overall health.
An Overview of Food Fortification
- Food Fortification: It is the practice of adding vitamins and minerals to commonly consumed foods during processing to increase their nutritional value and is a proven, safe and cost-effective strategy for improving diets and for the prevention and control of micronutrient deficiencies. The main fortification vehicles are as follows:
- Large-Scale Food Fortification (LSFF): It is the addition of micronutrients during processing to commonly consumed foods such as salt (folic acid), flour (folic acid), oil (vitamin A), sugar (vitamin A), milk (vitamin A & D, iron, calcium and folic acid), and condiments. These can be categorised as:
- Mandatory: initiated and regulated by the government- fortified flour and iodised salt.
- Voluntary: Food processors add nutrients to the foods of their own volition but are governed by regulatory limits.
- Biofortification: It is the process in which food crops with improved nutritional value are grown, and these projects mainly concentrate on boosting iron, zinc, amino acids and provitamin A carotenoid in different food crops.
- Examples: include iron biofortification of rice, beans, maize and sweet potato; zinc biofortification of wheat, rice, beans, sweet potato and corn; and Vitamin A biofortification of sweet potatoes, corn and cassava.
- Point-of-Use or Home Fortification: It is the addition of vitamins and minerals to food that has been cooked and is ready to be eaten, achieved by sprinkling micronutrient powders (MNPs).
- MNPs are single-dose packets containing multiple vitamins and minerals in powder form that can be sprinkled onto food without affecting the taste or colour.
- Fortified Foods Available In India: Wheat Flour, Rice, Double Fortified Salt, Edible Oil and Milk
Need for Food Fortification
- Micronutrient Malnutrition: Also known as hidden hunger, it poses a serious health risk.
- Results from an unbalanced diet, limited food variety, or food unavailability.
- Nutrients are often lost during food processing.
- Micronutrient Deficiencies in India: High prevalence of deficiencies in Vitamin A, Iodine, Iron, and Folic Acid.
- Leads to conditions like Night Blindness, Goitre, Anaemia, and birth defects.
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) Statistics: As per Latest FSSAI data,
- 58.4% of children (6-59 months) are anaemic.
- 53.1% of women of reproductive age are anaemic.
- 35.7% of children under 5 are underweight.
- Proven Global Intervention: Fortification is a globally recognized and effective method to combat micronutrient deficiencies in populations.
- Benefits of Food Fortification: Ensures safe and nutritious food intake.
- Addresses nutrient deficiencies effectively.
- Complements other nutrition improvement strategies like diet diversification and supplementation.
Strategic Advantages of Food Fortification
- High Benefit-to-Cost Ratio: Copenhagen Consensus estimates show that every rupee spent on fortification yields 9 rupees in benefits to the economy.
- Initial investment required for equipment and vitamin/mineral premix, but overall costs are low.
- Wide Consumption Reach: Nutrients added to staple foods, widely consumed by large populations, improving health on a large scale.
- Safe Method of Nutrition Improvement: Addition of micronutrients poses no health risks, quantities added are small and within Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA), regulated for safe consumption.
- Cost-Effectiveness and Socio-Cultural Acceptance: A cost-effective intervention that doesn’t require changes in eating patterns or habits.
- Socio-culturally acceptable way to deliver nutrients to people.
- Preservation of Food Characteristics: Fortification doesn’t alter taste, aroma, or texture of food, ensuring consumer satisfaction.
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed more than 20 varieties of biofortified crops, including wheat, rice, maize, millet, mustard, and groundnut, having 1.5 to 3 times higher levels of nutrients compared to the traditional varieties.
- It is worth noting that these varieties are not genetically modified– they have been developed through conventional crop breeding techniques.
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- Probiotics are foods/ supplements that contain live microorganisms (Bacteria, Yeast) intended to maintain or improve the ‘good’ bacteria (normal microflora) in the body. [UPSC 2022]
- Prebiotics are non-digestible food components that selectively stimulate the growth or activity of desirable microorganisms in the human body.
- Synbiotics are products that combine probiotics and prebiotics.
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Conclusion
- Food fortification stands as a proven global intervention to combat micronutrient deficiencies, especially prevalent in countries like India.
- With its wide consumption reach, safety, cost-effectiveness, and preservation of food characteristics, fortification offers strategic advantages in improving public health.
- The development of biofortified crops by institutions like the Indian Council of Agricultural Research showcases ongoing efforts to enhance nutrient levels in staple foods, ensuring a healthier future for populations worldwide.