Event: Global Milling Conference

Fortify your flour! A plea to millers to help their customers to better health

While 73 countries worldwide had adopted mandatory flour fortification policies, including the USA, Canada, Australia along with numerous developing countries, India is proving difficult to be convinced of the benefits and remains an exception, relying on voluntary compliance where just 30 flour millers out of 1100 country-wide electing to fortify their flour for consumers.

“In India eight children out of 1000 are affected by folic acid deficiency. 75 percent of children under three suffer iron deficiency or anaemia. And 50 percent of all children suffer Vitamin A deficiency,” Dr Subrata Dutta, the nutritional coordinator for the Flour Fortification Initiative in New Delhi, told delegates attending the opening day of the 1^st Global Milling Conference in Chennai, India today.

He says he organisation is working to bring about changes in standard milling practices so that millers will commit to including micro-nutrients, such as zinc, iodine, iron, folate and Vitamin A on a voluntary basis to ensure people are “smarter, stronger and healthier.”

He told delegates that by not fortifying flour, the country was facing a “silent emergency”. He explained this as a health issue for the country as a lack of micro-nutrients in a largely cereal-based national diet could not be identified as a disease or an illness but was none-the-less had serious consequences for human health.

He was astounded to realise that it was almost 100 years since fortification had been first mooted and that the Indian government still procrastinated over the issue. As a result he said India was loosing out financially at a time when GDP was falling.

“If not having right quantities of micronutrients, the consequences are increased mortality, low birth weight, impaired mental development, chronic disease, infection and reduced productivity     

“A well-integrated strategy is, therefore, critical for long term success in reducing malnutrition, improving health, educational achievement and economic productivity,” he added.

He said in India people spent US$ 9.1 billion on tests, treatments and medical devices to manage communicable diseases - that is 3.3 percent of India’s GDP and four times the total spent by all state governments on healthcare.

“The projected cumulative loss in national income for India due to non-communicable disease mortality for 2006-2015 will be US$237 billion. That’s one percent of GDP lost due to productivity loss because of micronutrient deficiencies,” he said.

“People affected to the greatest degree are from low socio-economic condition. They suffer the most but have the least resources and so to reach them a special targeted effort is required.”

He called on the country’s 1070 remaining flour mills to adopt fortification on a voluntary basis.

Dr Subrata Dutta, the nutritional coordinator for the Flour Fortification Initiative in New Delhi, India pleads for flour fortification to tackle child and female health issues