This document discusses food fortification in India. It notes that malnutrition is a major problem, with nearly half of Indian children underweight or underdeveloped. Milling wheat removes many nutrients. Food fortification aims to improve nutrition by adding vitamins and minerals lost during processing. Several Indian states initiated programs around 2005 to fortify staple foods like wheat flour and edible oils with iron, folic acid, and vitamins A and D. Studies show these state-level fortification programs have successfully increased nutrient levels in foods and reduced malnutrition rates. The goal is for fortified foods to reach all people, including those milling grains themselves.

1. INTRODUCTION TO
“FORTIFICATION”

2. Contents
 What does the statistics say?
 The most common grain-‘Wheat’
 Milling of wheat
 Effect of milling on nutritious contents of
wheat
 What is Fortification?
 State’s Initiative and it’s effects

3. What does the statistics say?
 Malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa
 One in every 3 malnourished children in the world is in India
 About 50% of all childhood deaths are attributed to malnutrition
 Around 46% of all children below the age of 3 are under-developed
 Around 47% of all children are underweight
 Around 16% of child mortality is due to malnutrition
 Malnutrition in early childhood has serious impediment effect on sensory, cognitive,
social and emotional development
 Around one-third of all adult women are underweight
 Malnourished women, especially during pregnancy, result in either the child being
mentally or physically challenged or the child suffering death or both mother and child
suffering death
 Around 74% of children under the age of 3, more than 90% of adolescent girls and
50% of women suffer with Anemia
 Malnutrition limits development and the capacity to learn

4. The most common grain – ‘Wheat’

5. Milling of wheat
 Wheat is milled to obtain one of the most staple diets for
most of the Indians i.e. flour
 This milling process can be distinguished in three
different sectors:
• Flour milling
• Whole Wheat Chakkis
• Nookad chakki or Ghar Ghanti

6. Effect of milling on nutritious contents of wheat

7. What is Fortification?
 Food fortification is the process of improving the quality
of necessary vitamins and minerals in our daily food
intake. Because of the use of fortified food, we get the
required minerals and vitamins along with other natural
elements

8. State’s initiatives and its effect
 Keeping the statistics of the nation and the appalling levels of
anaemia, night blindness and bone related diseases it was decided
to initiate a fortification movement
 Flour would be fortified with iron and folic acid where as edible oil
would be fortified with Vitamin A and D
 This idea was mooted in the Conference of Food Secretaries in
September, 2005 at Bombay.
 Several meetings were held with oil and flour millers in the State for
the purpose of convincing them for the use and advantages of
fortification
 Since companies in India are manufacturing the premix for the
purpose there no need to go to importers

9. States initiative and its effects
 All this has resulted in a successful fortification process for edible oil
and flour all over the state
 Today all the millers, packers and refineries for edible oil are
fortifying their product and all the millers of wheat are fortifying their
product
 A study is being conducted in the sports authority of Gujarat where
by a sample of 20 sports persons are selected and fortified flour is
being supplied to them for three months. Their Hemoglobin level
was tested before the consumption of fortified flour and then after
three months it was tested again which showed a average rise of 2
points of hemoglobin in the sample units

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11. Reaching each and every person in the state
 The state feels responsible for
those who are at the grass root
level
 And so the state is introducing
the premix in retail packaging
so the people who prefer to get
the grains milled by
themselves can also fortify
their flour and consume a
nutritious diet to benefit from
the movement