Food fortification is required due to insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals, due to the consumption of predominantly processed foods. Commercial food fortification adds trace amounts of micronutrients to foods during processing, which helps consumers achieve the required levels of micronutrients in their diet.
Full Answer
Why do we need to fortify food?
Food fortification is required due to insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals, due to the consumption of predominantly processed foods. Commercial food fortification adds trace amounts of micronutrients to foods during processing, which helps consumers achieve the required levels of micronutrients in their diet.
What is voluntary fortification?
Voluntary fortification occurs when a food manufacturer freely chooses to fortify particular foods in response to permission given in food law as a means to increase their brand value. Globally, mandatory regulations are most often applied to the fortification of food with micronutrients such as iodine, iron, vitamin A and folic acid.
Does food fortification reduce micronutrient deficiencies?
As food fortification programs expand around the world, there will be increasing need to monitor the quality of the fortified food (in terms of its micronutrient content) and evaluate its contribution to the alleviation of micronutrient deficiencies.
What is the difference between target fortification and mass fortification?
Fortifying commonly eaten foods ensures that the persons diet will include necessary vitamins that would otherwise be lacking. Mass food fortification is that which is aimed at an entire population, while target fortification serves to improve the needs of a specific group of people.
Why should food be fortified?
Fortification has been identified as one of the most cost-effective nutrition interventions available, particularly for low- and middle-income coun...
What are the health impacts of food fortification?
Food fortification with multiple micronutrients may reduce anaemia, iron deficiency anaemia and micronutrient deficiencies (iron, vitamin A, vitami...
Basic principles about food fortification
Fortification should be part of a comprehensive micronutrient deficiency control strategy that sets clear and achievable goals to assess progress a...
Lessons learned about food fortification
Food fortification leads to rapid improvement in the micronutrient status of a population, and at a reasonable cost, especially if advantage is tak...
Implementing mandatory versus voluntary fortification
Mandatory and voluntary regulation in food fortification may provide different levels of certainty over time that a particular category of food wil...
Why is fortification important?
The fortification of foods is vitally important, especially for those living in developing countries where access to a wide variety of foods is not possible. Providing fortified foods can help uplift communities providing their people with essential nutrients that support a healthy functioning body.
What are the benefits of food fortification?
Other key benefits of food fortification include: Improved productivity, maternal health, and cognitive development. Reduced risk of severe brain and spinal conditions. Strengthened the immune system. Reduced risk of skin diseases and nervous system diseases. Improved metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins.
What is the process of adding or increasing micronutrients to common foods to help replace any nutrients lost in the cooking?
Food fortification is the process of adding or increasing micronutrients to common foods to help replace any nutrients lost in the cooking process or to provide a nutrient boost in foods that are nutrient deficient.
Why do people depend on fortified rice?
In some developing nations, people depend on fortified rice, wheat, and maize to stay alive and have the opportunity to lead a normal healthy life. Iron deficiency anemia is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies with pregnant women being at the highest risk.
What foods are calcium fortified?
Food and drinks that are commonly fortified with calcium include fruit juices, cereals, bottled waters and energy bars. Calcium-fortified foods are essential for those who are intolerant to dairy which includes an estimated 75% of the population of the world, according to PubMed Central, a highly respected database from the National Institutes of Health.
How does food fortification help?
In the developed world, fortification can support a healthy diet by providing essential nutrients to those who may not be getting enough from their food. In developing nations, food fortification can be the difference between life and death.
How is rice fortified?
Rice, for example, is fortified by adding a micronutrient powder that adheres to the rice or by spraying the surface on which the rice is processed.
Sources of Fortification
Fortification can be gained by multiples sources which split into two categories, those that go through regular rules of fortification ( Hit) and those that works as buff with a limited amount of Fortification. The sources are the following:
Maximum Fortification stacks
If it was possible, increasing the maximum Fortification by 80 stacks would provide 100% less damage taken from hits. Up to 60 additional stacks can be attained by combining all of the following:
Other skills
Focus is not directly related to Fortification , but some item mod requires to have Focus active in order to trigger Fortification-related effect.
What is the most successful fortification process?
Iodine: The most successful global fortification experience has been the fortification of salt with iodine. Adding iodine to salt is a simple manufacturing process costing no more than 4 cents per person annually. A significant proportion of the populations in more than 120 countries have access to iodized salt. As of 2015, nearly 76% of salt consumed in the world is being iodized, protecting nearly 80 million newborns each year from the threat of mental impairment caused by iodine deficiency ( UNICEF State of the World’s Children, 2015 ). Successful salt iodization has reduced the incidence of goiter and cretinism, prevented mental retardation and subclinical iodine deficiency disorders, and contributed to improved national productivity. Building on the success with iodization, double fortification of salt with iodine and iron is gaining ground and can be integrated with established iodization processes. Double fortified salt is currently being produced in India and has the potential to be distributed through commercial channels and public programs to reach economically weaker sections of the population in many countries.
Why is food fortification important?
Food fortification is required due to insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals, due to the consumption of predominantly processed foods. Commercial food fortification adds trace amounts of micronutrients to foods during processing, which helps consumers achieve the required levels of micronutrients in their diet.
How does food fortification work?
Food fortification increases micronutrient supply to reduce nutritional deficiencies in the population by taking advantage of existing delivery mechanisms for industry-manufactured products. Population coverage depends on the food vehicle, but impact is contingent on the additional micronutrient intake and the nutrient gap. The fortification level is often limited by the criteria of safety, technological compatibility, and cost. Nevertheless, knowledge of the dietary characteristics of the population is still necessary to select the fortification condition with the highest effectiveness potential. Successful programs require reliable food enforcement and monitoring systems; selecting efficacious products is not enough. This chapter describes current concepts regarding critical issues in the design and implementation of effective food fortification programs.
Why is it important to monitor the quality of fortified food?
As food fortification programs expand around the world, there will be increasing need to monitor the quality of the fortified food (in terms of its micronutrient content) and evaluate its contribution to the alleviation of micronutrient deficiencies. Monitoring activities should ensure that a fortified product contains a sufficient amount of the micronutrient and that it reaches the target population. While monitoring at production level is essential through quality assurance, monitoring also needs to be carried out periodically at various levels in the distribution chain – from production or importation to wholesale, retail, and household levels.
What are the challenges of food fortification?
Notwithstanding the considerable progress in food fortification over the past decades, there are major challenges to ensure that undernourished people especially in low- and middle-income countries receive meaningful amounts of micronutrients through improved access to fortified foods. The following section discusses the current situation with respect to fortification programs designed to prevent specific micronutrient deficiencies, and highlights some remaining issues and challenges.
Why are nutrients added to food?
Nutrients may be added to foods to either restore nutrients lost during processing (restoration or enrichment), introduce nutrients not naturally found in the food, or increase the levels of nutrients to above those naturally present in the food (fortification).
Is folic acid a market driven food?
Market-driven foods fortified with folic acid are also common. Mandatory folic acid fortification of flour has been described as the most important science-driven nutrition and public health intervention in decades.
