Food fortification is a proven and cost-effective intervention for addressing micronutrient deficiencies by improving the nutritional quality of food supplied to the population. Today, more than 125 countries have mandatory food fortification programmes.
Salt iodisation is utilised worldwide, safeguarding against goiter and severe intellectual disabilities in children. Iodine is an essential nutrient for human health and well-being, but procuring iodine can be challenging for salt-producers in low- and middle-income countries.
You are listening to Assurance and Action, the podcast of your total quality assurance provider Intertek. Today, I am joined by Intertek’s Sandra Meixner, the Global Programme Manager for ATEC Food Authenticity Services, Britta Bellersen, Team Leader of Supply Chain Management and Food Services and Gerhard Rimkus, Senior Food Consultant.
Fortification of staple foods is a safe, low-cost, effective and evidence based public health intervention aimed at aimed at ensuring access to micronutrients to the general population including the most vulnerable.
At every life stage, micronutrients are crucial to immune system function and resilience to infectious disease.
This brief makes the case for large scale staple food fortification as a critically important tool to fight malnutrition in general, and even more so during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
