National Summit on Fortification of Food

• The National Summit on Fortification of Food to address interventions in combating micronutrient malnutrition in the country was concluded recently.
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) co-hosted the two day Summit in partnership with related central ministries / departments and development partners.

Food fortification in India:

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has formulated a comprehensive regulation on fortification of foods namely ‘Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016’. These regulations set the standards for food fortification and encourage the production, manufacture, distribution, sale and consumption of fortified foods. The regulations also provide for specific role of FSSAI in promotion for food fortification and to make fortification mandatory. This sets the premise for the national summit on fortification of food.

About Food Fortification:

• Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding micronutrients to food.
• It may be a purely commercial choice to provide extra nutrients in a food. Other times, it is a public health policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population.
• Sometimes the staple foods of a region can lack particular nutrients, due to the soil of the region or because of the inherent inadequacy of the normal diet. Addition of micronutrients to staples and condiments can prevent large-scale deficiency diseases in these cases.
• As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), fortification refers to "the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, ie. 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."
• Food fortification was identified as the second strategy of four by the WHO and FAO to begin decreasing the incidence of nutrient deficiencies at the global level.

Analysis:

• The control of micronutrient deficiencies is an essential part of the overarching effort of the Government to fight hunger and malnutrition in the country.
• Nutrition is a major determinant of health. She further added that macro and micro nutrients deficiency will lead to risk factors that may cause various diseases like TB, anaemia, etc
• Food fortification is a proven and effective strategy to meet the nutritional needs of a large number of people across various sections of the society, including the poor and underprivileged as well as the vulnerable, such as pregnant women and young children.
• Fortification requires neither changes in existing food patterns, habits nor individual compliance. It is socio-culturally acceptable and does not alter the characteristics of the food. It can be introduced quickly and can produce nutritional benefits for populations in a short period of time. It is safe and cost effective, especially if advantage is taken of the existing technology and delivery platforms,
• Food fortification reinforces and supports existing nutrition improvement programmes and is part of a broader, integrated approach to prevent micronutrient deficiencies, thereby complementing other approaches to improve health and nutrition.

By: Vishal