What is Food Fortification and its Benefits?

The Impact of Food Fortification: Enhancing Nutrition and Public Health

Food fortification is defined as “the practice of deliberately increasing the content of micronutrients in a food to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk” (WHO and FAO, 2006). Adding micronutrients to staple foods has been established as a successful public health strategy to address deficiencies and improve overall nutritional quality. Implemented initially during wartime to combat deficiencies and restore nutrients lost during processing, practices like iodized salt have demonstrably reduced diseases like goiter. Underutilized plants like buckwheat, quinoa, and amaranth, along with an assortment of legumes, pigmented cereal grains, and nuts enriched with bioactive health-promoting phytochemicals, are gaining traction in the food industry for the development of functional foods (Hayta & İşçimen, 2019). Fortification efforts have continued to evolve, focusing on cost-effectiveness and targeting specific population needs. This approach is particularly relevant for low- and middle-income countries, where biofortification and strategic fortification of staple foods can significantly improve micronutrient intake and population health.

References

Hayta, M. and İşçimen, E.M. 2019. Effects of Phytochemical Fortification of Flour and Bread on Human Health. Flour and Breads and their Fortification in Health and Disease Prevention 2^nd ed. Academic Press, pp.273-289.

Means, R. T. (Ed.). (2019). Nutritional anemia: Scientific principles, clinical practice, and public health. Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

What is the fortification of milk?

Dr. Oinam Santosh

World Bamboo Ambassador

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Dr. Oinam Santosh is from Manipur, North-East state of India with a rich bamboo culture and a huge bamboo resource utilized in food, construction and many religious occasions. He has been actively involved with the World Bamboo Organization since 2019. He is also a World Bamboo Ambassador from India and a recipient of Ned Jaquith Foundation, USA working on the “Exploratory Study on the Traditional Knowledge of Bamboo Shoot Processing and Consumption in different States of North East India”. He has done his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Nirmala Chongtham, Department of Botany at Panjab University, Chandigarh working on the “Evaluation of bamboo shoots for fortification and production of novel food products”. He has more than 30 national and international publications regarding bamboo shoot nutrition, processing and health benefits. He has also attended and delivered lectures in many national and international forums like the National University of Costa Rica, Mexico and Vietnam.

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