Facts of Food Fortification:
Food Fortification is the process of adding essential and required nutrients in the food. These essential elements may or may not be available in the food earlier but as a final result, it’s a process to make that food nutritionally more valuable to consume. It’s also a process of correcting an illustrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the group of population.
Food technologists frequently refer to fortification as nutrification. Food is fortified to enrich it with various nutrients that lack in the particular article to prevent people from malnutrition.
A specific term that is used for the particular food under facts of food fortification is fortified is ‘Food vehicle’. A food vehicle is commonly grouped into three main categories- STAPLES (wheat, rice, oils); CONDIMENTS (salt, sugar, soy sauce); PROCESSED COMMERCIAL FOODS (noodles, infant complementary foods, dairy products).
Any food to be selected for fortification has to pass its criteria of selection, that includes-
- It must be consumed in a good quantity almost regularly.
- It should be centrally processed.
- Vehicles should be selected in such a way that they should not undergo various changes in taste, colour and appearance.
- The added nutrients should be in an optimum amount so that they do not turn out to be toxic.
- It should be a low cost food product that can be bought by every section of society.
A food is fortified for the following purposes-
- RESTORATION- Nutrients lost during food processing are replaced in this process and as a result, the food product becomes more enriched. So restoration is an essential process to make foods full of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Eg. Iron, thiamine and niacin are added to brown and white flour.
- SUBSTITUTION- Nutrients are sometimes added to produce a substitute product with similar nutritive value as, a few products are consumed in large amounts but the lack a few important nutrients, so, substituting these products makes them healthier. Eg. Vitamin A and vitamin D are added to margarine as a substitute for butter.
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Being aware of various purposes of fortifying food, a question remains that should we consume these products or not? Are they beneficial for our health or not? Consoling these queries, all the benefits of food fortification clears this.
- Fortified food is one of the best methods to reduce the risk of nutrition deficiency.
- Also, nutrification can easily be implemented as a long term approach, benefitting the lives of people for a longer period.
- Under facts of food fortification it has a wide population coverage and covers almost all the people suffering from malnutrition.
- Combined fortification can address multiple deficiencies and provide the nutrition that is skipped from the staple food.
- Encourages companies to be socially concerned and to add nutritional value to their products.
- Provides opportunities for consumers to become involved in food quality issues and creates demand for the safe, wholesome road.
Now a query is raised, if fortification is so beneficial then what techniques could be followed for the same?
So various techniques that are enlisted below to explain the nutrification of food-
- DRY MIXING- it is used for foods like cereal flours and their products, powdered milk, beverage powder, etc.
- DISSOLUTION IN WATER AND OIL- It is done for liquid milk, fruit juices, etc.
- SPRAYING- spraying is done for cornflakes and other processed foods.
- COATING- It is done for rice. The vitamins sprayed over the grains must be coated to avoid losses when the grains are washed before cooking.
Different types of fortification that are done using these techniques are-
- MASS FORTIFICATION- mass fortification is the addition of micronutrients to foods commonly consumed by the general public. It includes staple foods (flour, rice), dairy (milk, yoghurt), spreads (margarine).
- HOME FORTIFICATION- it is the addition of micronutrients to food at the household level, particularly to complementary foods for young children. It is available in forms of- soluble or crushable tablets, micronutrient powder, micronutrient-rich spreads.
- BIO-FORTIFICATION- it is emerging technology building on genetically modified plants to improve their nutrient content. At present biofortification is done for rice, corn, etc.
While talking about India various initiatives have been taken by the government to promote this nutritious food. In India salt, wheat, rice milk and oil are identified as appropriate vehicles for fortification. Various programmes undertaken by the government are as follows-
- Fortification of ICDS supplementary cooked food.
- Fortification of food for the mid-day meal.
- Fortification of factory-produced Ready-to-eat foods.
- Fortification of wheat flour supplied through the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
Nutritional supplements
Considering all valid reasons for fortification, various food products act as the most common vehicles in various nations-
- SUGAR- it is fortified with vitamin A.
- WHEAT FLOUR- fortification of wheat flour is done with thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and iron for a long time.
- CORN FLOUR- precooked corn flour is fortified with vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and iron.
- SALT- in many countries throughout the world it is fortified with iodine and iron.
- FATS AND OILS- fats and oils may serve as a good vehicle for vitamin A as it comes under the category of fat-soluble vitamin.
- MILK- milk has been successfully fortified with vitamin A and vitamin D for many years.
| FOOD PRODUCTS | FORTIFIED BY |
| MILK | VITAMIN D AND VITAMIN A |
| WHOLE GRAIN BREAD | FOLIC ACID |
| EGGS | OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS |
| RICE MILK | VITAMIN D |
| ORANGE JUICE | CALCIUM AND VITAMIN D |
| SOY PRODUCTS | VITAMIN D, CALCIUM, VITAMIN A |
| GRAINS AND RICE | IRON, VITAMIN C |
| WHOLE GRAIN CEREALS | VITAMIN B6, VITAMIN B12, FOLIC ACID |
| YOGURT | CALCIUM, MAGNESIUM, POTASSIUM |
| SALT | IODINE |
| OATMEAL | VITAMIN B, FOLIC ACID, VITAMIN A, IRON |
Regardless of these benefits food fortification also has a few disadvantages-
Fortified food is rich in particular nutrient but in low-income countries, people may often suffer from multiple micronutrient deficiencies and hence they might not be properly benefitted by consuming fortified food. To conclude that, as we have seen a wide range of benefits of food fortification so, it should be widely accepted by the public.
