Table of Contents
What is Food Fortification?
- Food fortification is defined as the process of deliberately adding/increasing the content of essential micro-nutrients in a food in order to improve the nutritional quality of the food.
- Simply, food fortification refers to the addition of micro-nutrients to the food.
- Food fortification is also known as the food enrichment.
- Food fortification refers to the addition of nutrient/s to the food to increase the nutritional quality.
- Food fortification is done to improve the nutritive estimations of the nourishment. These supplements might have been initially present in the nourishment before preparing.
Criteria for Effective Food Fortification:
(This criteria for effective food fortification are taken from joint statement issued by the Council on Food and Nutrition of the American Medical Association and the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council. Improvement of the Nutritional Quality of Food. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 205:868-869)
The criteria for effective food fortification are:
i) The intake of the nutrient is below the desirable level in the diets of a significant number of people.
ii) The food used to supply the nutrient is likely to be consumed in quantities that will make a significant contribution to the diet of the population in need.
iii) The addition of the nutrient is not likely to create an imbalance of essential nutrients
iv) The nutrient is stable under proper conditions of storage and use.
v) The nutrient is physiologically available from the food.
vi) There is reasonable assurance against excessive intake to a level of toxicity.
Other Criteria For Fortification:
- The food to be fortified should be a palatable/edible thing that is consumed by most of the population.
- There should be no adjustment in the physical properties of the food (consumer acceptability)
- The food should be a low-cost food product that can be purchased by people from every section of the society
Types of Food Fortification:
Basically, there are four types of food fortification. They are:
- Mass fortification
- Targeted fortification
- Market-driven fortification &
- Other types of fortification
1. Mass fortification:
- In mass fortification, fortification is done in a food that are consumed by the general public.
- Mass fortification is considered best when majority of population has an unacceptable risk (public health risk) related to nutritional deficiency.
- Examples include fortification of cereals, condiments, milk, oil and vegetables etc.
- This type of fortification is usually mandated/regulated by the government.
2. Targeted fortification:
- In targeted fortification, fortification is only done in those foods that are specifically aimed at specific sub-groups of the population.
- Examples: complementary foods for infant and young children, foods for school feeding program, special biscuits and other products for small children, pregnant and lactating women.
3. Market driven fortification:
- In market driven fortification, food manufacturer adopts a business-oriented initiative to add/fortify the food with certain micronutrients.
- Although this sort of fortification is voluntary, the manufacturer must abide by the government-set regulatory limits for fortification.
- Market driven fortification is more commonly found on industrialized countries compared to developing nations.
4. Other types of fortification:
a) Household and community fortification:
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- Household and community fortification refer to the fortification of foods with one or more micro-nutrient at household level.
- This approach is also considered as a combination of supplementation and fortification.
- Examples: Multiple Micro-nutrient powders, soluble tablets etc.
- This method is effective where universal fortification is not possible.
- However, it is more costly than mass fortification.
b) Bio-fortification of staple foods:
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- It includes breeding and genetic modification of plants to increase their nutrient content.
- Although this method of fortification seems to be sustainable, it still needs detail research on its safety, cost and health impact.
- For more details about bio-fortification, please go the below link: https://publichealthnotes.com/bio-fortification/
Advantages of Food Fortification:
- Fortification helps to minimize or decrease the potential occurrence of micro-nutrient deficiency.
- Fortification helps to improve dietary intake and nutritional status of an individual.
- Fortification is one of the most cost-effective procedures that can be executed on a bigger scale.
- Fortified foods are better at bringing down the danger of different insufficiency that can result from shortfalls in the nutrition supply or a low-quality eating routine.
- It doesn’t require an adjustment in the individual and utilization design.
- The amount of micro-nutrients added to the food is little and all-around managed. Thus, the probability of an overdose is far-fetched.
- Fortification is planned in such a way that the intrinsic characteristics of the food such as the taste, the appearance and the texture are not altered.
Limitations of Food Fortification:
- Food fortification may overshadow the importance of dietary diversity if it is considered as a long-term solution to micro-nutrient deficiency.
- Food fortification involves extensive expenses in the process. These may extend from beginning up expenses and the expenses of leading preliminaries for micro-nutrient levels, physical characteristics, and taste, to a practical investigation of the acquiring intensity of the plausible recipients.
- In some foods, the shelf life of foods is reduced due to fortification.
- In some cases, especially in market-driven fortification, the manufacturers may fortify highly junk and relatively unhealthy foods in order to attract the consumers. These foods may have more negative health effects than the positive effect.
References and For More Information:
https://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/guide_food_fortification_micronutrients.pdf
http://www.fao.org/3/w2840e/w2840e0d.htm
Improvement of the Nutritional Quality of Food. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 205:868-869
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ab68/709d5938c66f876df15604824ba511e17e70.pdf
https://www.consumer-voice.org/food/food-fortification/
