Key support to be offered for wheat and maize flour and rice fortification
Considering
the potential for fortified rice to improve the nutrition of billions of
people, the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI) is adding rice to its focus
and changing its name to the Food Fortification Initiative. Since rice is most
commonly eaten as whole kernels, it is not reflected in FFI’s original name.
FFI’s strategy is to support national partnerships with
advocacy resources and technical assistance for planning, implementing, and
monitoring fortification programs. This will not change; rice will simply be
added to FFI’s traditional focus on industrially milled flour.
“We must find practical solutions for rice fortification
because literally billions of people live in countries where health burdens are
high and rice is a staple food,” said Scott J. Montgomery, FFI Director.
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| Wheat, blue skies (Photo credit: Per Jensen) |
“Rice is the new frontier in food fortification, and with
our partners we are discovering ways to make fortifying it feasible,”
Montgomery added. “With our name change, we are trying to be clear to country
leaders from every sector that we are another resource for them as they explore
rice fortification.”
In 59 countries, an average of more than 75 grams of rice
per person per day is available for human consumption, according to the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (See map below). The
highest average is in Bangladesh with 475 grams.
The total population of these 59 countries is 4.1 billion.
If fortification of industrially milled rice reached half of that population, 2
billion people would have more nutrition in their daily diets.
Grains are commonly fortified during the milling process
to reduce the risk of anemia caused by nutritional deficiencies and neural tube
birth defects caused by insufficient folic acid. The highest concentrations of
children and women with anemia are in South Asia and Central and West Africa,
based on a study published in The Lancet
Global Health in July 2013. Countries in these regions are
among the highest in average rice availability.
“People around the world get most of their calories and
carbohydrates from wheat, rice, and maize. To the extent that we can fortify
the milled products of these grains, the greater health impact we will have,”
said Reynaldo Martorell, Woodruff Professor of International Nutrition and
Senior Advisor at the Global Health Institute at Emory University in Atlanta,
GA, USA. Martorell is also a member of the FFI Executive Management Team.
“Much of what we’ve learned about wheat flour
fortification applies to rice fortification,” said Greg Harvey, Group Chief
Executive of the Interflour Group with headquarters in Singapore. He has been a
member of FFI’s Executive Management Team since 2007 and chairman since 2010.
The reasons to fortify are the same, regardless of the
grain, and the planning and monitoring processes are similar for each grain.
Only the technical process of fortification is different for rice.
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| Rice Diversity. Part of the image collection of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) . (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Capital costs to begin rice fortification vary depending
on the type of technology used. The recurring costs to fortify one metric ton
of rice range from US$ 6 to US$ 20, depending mainly on the complexity of the
mix of vitamins and mineral added. These costs are expected to decrease as rice
fortification becomes more common.
In addition to health benefits, fortification offers
economic benefits to countries through improved productivity as nutritional
anemia is prevented. Also, thousands of healthcare dollars are averted by
preventing neural tube defects. The most common of these birth defects is spina
bifida, and affected children often need costly surgeries and treatments.
FFI represents public, private and civic-sector leaders at the
national, regional, and global levels. Among FFI’s partners with international
expertise in rice fortification are Bühler Group, the Global Alliance for
Improved Nutrition (GAIN), PATH, the World Food Programme, and the Wright
Group.
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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