Reasons to Fortify

Ten reasons to fortify wheat flour and maize meal

1. Wheat flour and maize meal are ideal vehicles to get deficient nutrients to the general population. They are food staples in many countries, consumed in significant quantities by all age groups and economic classes at nearly every meal.
   
   
2. Fortification restores the nutrients removed during the milling process. Most of the vitamins and minerals being added are naturally present in the whole grain but greatly reduced by the milling refinement process. Many fortification programs simply call for restoring deficit nutrient levels to that contained in the whole grain, often called enrichment or restoration.
   
   
3. Cereal fortification is safe. A person cannot eat enough fortified flour or maize meal to exceed the upper safety levels of vitamin and mineral intakes.
   
   
4. Fortification is an established public health measure. Fortification of wheat flour and maize meal is an established and proven public health measure with widespread support by the medical and milling communities.
   
   
5. The technology is readily available. Flour and maize meal have been fortified for sixty years, in many countries all over the world, so the concept, technology and sustainability are well established.
   
   
6. Fortification at the mill is relatively inexpensive and affordable. It will have limited impact on the cost of the food to the consumer; yet the public will eventually pay for it with a small, overall price increase.
   
   
7. It is simple and easy to control. Fortification at the flour or maize mill is fairly simple and easy to control and regulate.
   
   
8. Equipment and procedures are available. The milling equipment, design and quality control procedures for flour fortification have all been developed and are readily available.
   
   
9. Premix available at competitive prices. There are a number of commercial concerns operating worldwide that supply fortification premix and mill equipment at reasonable prices due to heavy competition.
   
   
10. Technical support is available from a variety of organizations. Several international organizations, including the Micronutrient Initiative, USAID/A2Z, and GAIN, can provide technical, promotional and financial support.

Deciding to fortify

The following factors may influence a milling company's decision to fortify:

Fortification restores and enhances the health-giving properties of grains: Flours such as wheat flour and maize meal are important staple foods in many parts of the world including Africa, providing a substantial proportion of people's daily energy needs . In addition to calories, unprocessed wheat and maize are good sources of a range of nutrients, mostly concentrated in the germ and outer layers of the grain. During milling, however, vitamins and minerals are lost, so that refined cereals retain only 15-20% of the grain's original nutrients. Fortification can restore these nutrients, and even provide additional nutrients, such as Vitamin A, to improve the overall nutrient quality of processed cereals.

You can reach large numbers of people with a healthy product: Due to rapid urbanization and improved links between urban and rural areas, people increasingly buy processed maize meal and wheat flour products like bread and noodles. Bread consumption, for example, is rapidly increasing across Sub-Saharan Africa. Wheat milling at large modern mills increased by 40% between 1998 and 2002. With the urban population expected to reach 365 million by 2015, and centrally processed foods increasingly reaching deep into rural areas, the reach and positive health impact attainable through fortification of maize meal and wheat flour is great.

You will be joining a continent-wide trend: Several African countries and companies have already recognized the benefits of flour fortification. The fortification of wheat and maize flour has been mandatory in South Africa since 2002, in Zambia since 2003, in Nigeria since 2004 and in Morocco, in the case of wheat flour, since 2005. Guinea and Kenya have been fortifying wheat flour on a voluntary basis since 2004 and 2007 respectively. Some multinational flour milling companies have adopted flour fortification voluntarily in countries in Africa where they operate, notably Angola, Congo, Kenya and Lesotho.

It is in step with a world-wide trend: As of 2005 all countries in the Americas (North, Central and South) have national wheat and maize flour fortification programmes. Several countries in the Middle East and Asia are also fortifying flour. Since 1996 folic acid fortification of flour in North America and Chile has reduced birth defects by between 50 and 75%. The United Kingdom has recently announced that it will table legislation making the fortification of flour mandatory.

Related Information:

1. Planning and Implementing Fortification {see separate document}
2. Flour Millers {search MBendi company directory}
3. Nutritional Data Suppliers {duplication?}
4. FAQ
5. Tenders {search MBendi tenders directory}
6. Case Studies Commodity Production Levels, Prices, Trends
7. Consumption
8. News (search MBendi news and views directory)
9. Reference Material Organisations (search MBendi organisation directory)
10. Facilities (search MBendi facilities directory for plants)
11. Personalities (search MBendi personalities directory for people associated with companies / organisations)
12. Partners {use information in partners.doc}

Useful Links:

1. Approved Methods of the American Association of Cereal Chemists. 10th ed. The Association, St. Paul, MN, 2000
2. Fortification Basics: Maize Flour/Meal. Roche/USAID
3. Fortification Basics: Principles of Assay Procedures, Roche/USAID
4. Fortification Basics: Wheat Flour. OMNI/ USAID
5. Guidelines for Iron Fortification of Cereal Food Staple. SUSTAIN
6. Manual for Wheat Flour Fortification with Iron. Part 1: Guidelines for the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a program for wheat flour fortification with iron. Nestel, P., & Nalubola, R. MOST/USAID.
7. Manual for Wheat Flour Fortification with Iron Part 2: Technical and operational guidelines. Nalubola, R and Nestel, P. MOST/USAID.
8. Manual for Wheat Flour Fortification with Iron Part 3: Analytical Methods for Monitoring wheat flour fortification with Iron. Nalubola, R and Nestel, P. 2000. MOST/USAID,
9. Quality Assurance as Applied to Micronutrient Fortification. Nestel, P, Nalubola, R, et al. 2002. ILSI
10. IDPAS Cereal Publications