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 1st
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.
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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
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