Four countries led grain fortification progress in 2018

by Sarah Zimmermann, Communications Coordinator, Food Fortification Initiative

A state in India, plus Afghanistan and Pakistan, led global progress in wheat flour fortification in 2018, according to an annual survey by the Food Fortification Initiative (FFI). In addition, Solomon Islands led progress in rice fortification by passing standards to require fortification of its imported rice.

India’s Haryana state began distributing fortified atta (stone-ground, whole-wheat flour) to some of its Public Distribution System beneficiaries in March 2018. The program has expanded and is now benefitting 177,000 people. Haryana leaders plan to scale it up to eventually reach 12.6 million people across the entire state.
 

Afghanistan and Pakistan fortified less than five percent of their industrially milled wheat flour in 2017, according to the FFI survey. But in 2018, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) reported that 73 percent of Afghanistan’s industrially milled wheat flour and 51 percent of Pakistan’s industrially milled flour was fortified.

In Solomon Islands, all of the domestically produced wheat flour is fortified, but the population consumes more rice than flour-based foods. Consequently, national leaders approved a standard in 2018 to require rice to be fortified with iron, zinc, folic acid, thiamin, and niacin. Requiring fortification of both rice and wheat flour will significantly increase vitamin and mineral intake of the country’s nearly 600,000 residents.

In each of these countries, the prevalence of anemia in at least one population group is a “severe public health problem” - the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification for anemia prevalence higher than 40 percent.

Anemia is a grave concern because:

• Pregnant women with severe anemia are twice as likely to die during or shortly after pregnancy than non-anemic women
• Anemic women in low and middle-income countries have a significantly higher risk of having a low-birth-weight infant than non-anemic women. Low birth weight means less than 2500 grams at birth; infants that small are prone to death and diseases while they are young. If they survive, they are more at risk for poor mental development in childhood and chronic health problems such as diabetes and heart disease later in life
• In childhood, anemia from iron deficiency stunts cognitive development which hinders academic performance and future earnings potential
• Anemia reduces productivity which may in turn reduce wages. is estimated to contribute to 17 percent lower productivity in heavy manual labour and five percent lower productivity in other manual labour-based jobs

Read more 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