by
the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (IFSBH)
Flour fortification involves adding essential vitamins and mineral to flour as it is milled, which in turn makes foods prepared with fortified flour more nutritious
Iron, zinc, folic acid, and other B vitamins are commonly added to wheat and maize flours. The potential for fortified foods to help address global nutritional deficiencies has long been acknowledged, with fortification strategies increasingly being prioritised as our interest and understanding of micronutrient malnutrition, and its fundamental role in the overall burden of global disease, has developed. Almost 20 years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) identified iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc deficiencies as being ‘among the world’s most serious health risk factors, ’ (World Health Report, 2000).
More than two billion people worldwide are now affected by micronutrient deficiencies. Contrary to popular belief, these dietary deficiencies are a global public health concern, not just an issue unique to developing countries, although undoubtedly this is where their burden is most keenly felt.
In an ideal world, everyone would eat a well-balanced, healthy diet, rich in all essential micronutrients to maintain good health. However, this ideal is over simplistic, and in reality a complex combination of social, environmental and economic factors make this basic prerequisite for good health unachievable for many. Food fortification has been utilised in industrialised societies for over three quarters of a century to replace vital nutrients lost as a result of food processing, so fortification is by no means a new concept. It is undoubtedly the most cost-effective way to ensure that people get enough vitamins and minerals through a non-health intervention.
Smarter Futures
Smarter Futures is a public-private-civic partnership that supports similar partnerships of flour millers, governments, vitamin and mineral suppliers, international organisations, and academic institutions to make fortification of wheat flour a reality in Africa. In countries, these partnerships are known as National Fortification Alliances. It is a sustainable fortification project, providing technical support and training for flour millers, government food control staff, academic institutions and other stakeholders in Africa involved in the fortification of wheat and maize flour with vitamins and minerals.
The project aims to improve the nutritional value of people’s diets through the fortification of flour, improving health and well-being and the health of future generations in Africa by the most successful, economically viable, cost effective and most importantly, sustainable means possible.
The Smarter Futures is the brainchild of project partners, the Food Fortification Initiative (FFI), AkzoNobel, Helen Keller International, and the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (IF), co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and supported both financially and technically by many other organisations, including the Laboratory of Cereal Technology, Ghent University, Belgium. The project partners are all committed to the primary prevention of health concerns caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies, such as Neural Tube Defects (NTDs), impaired learning capacity and decreased productivity.
Read the full article, HERE.
Flour fortification involves adding essential vitamins and mineral to flour as it is milled, which in turn makes foods prepared with fortified flour more nutritious
Iron, zinc, folic acid, and other B vitamins are commonly added to wheat and maize flours. The potential for fortified foods to help address global nutritional deficiencies has long been acknowledged, with fortification strategies increasingly being prioritised as our interest and understanding of micronutrient malnutrition, and its fundamental role in the overall burden of global disease, has developed. Almost 20 years ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) identified iron, iodine, vitamin A and zinc deficiencies as being ‘among the world’s most serious health risk factors, ’ (World Health Report, 2000).
More than two billion people worldwide are now affected by micronutrient deficiencies. Contrary to popular belief, these dietary deficiencies are a global public health concern, not just an issue unique to developing countries, although undoubtedly this is where their burden is most keenly felt.
In an ideal world, everyone would eat a well-balanced, healthy diet, rich in all essential micronutrients to maintain good health. However, this ideal is over simplistic, and in reality a complex combination of social, environmental and economic factors make this basic prerequisite for good health unachievable for many. Food fortification has been utilised in industrialised societies for over three quarters of a century to replace vital nutrients lost as a result of food processing, so fortification is by no means a new concept. It is undoubtedly the most cost-effective way to ensure that people get enough vitamins and minerals through a non-health intervention.
Smarter Futures
Smarter Futures is a public-private-civic partnership that supports similar partnerships of flour millers, governments, vitamin and mineral suppliers, international organisations, and academic institutions to make fortification of wheat flour a reality in Africa. In countries, these partnerships are known as National Fortification Alliances. It is a sustainable fortification project, providing technical support and training for flour millers, government food control staff, academic institutions and other stakeholders in Africa involved in the fortification of wheat and maize flour with vitamins and minerals.
The project aims to improve the nutritional value of people’s diets through the fortification of flour, improving health and well-being and the health of future generations in Africa by the most successful, economically viable, cost effective and most importantly, sustainable means possible.
The Smarter Futures is the brainchild of project partners, the Food Fortification Initiative (FFI), AkzoNobel, Helen Keller International, and the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (IF), co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and supported both financially and technically by many other organisations, including the Laboratory of Cereal Technology, Ghent University, Belgium. The project partners are all committed to the primary prevention of health concerns caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies, such as Neural Tube Defects (NTDs), impaired learning capacity and decreased productivity.
Read the full article, HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
For additional daily news from milling around the world: global-milling.com
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