What is fortified rice, and how is it prepared?

• The Union Cabinet has approved a scheme to distribute fortified rice under government programmes.
• Food Corporation of India and state agencies have already procured 88.65 LMT (lakh tonnes) of fortified rice for supply and distribution.
• In last year’s Independence Day speech, the Indian PM had announced the fortification of rice distributed under various government schemes, including the public distribution system (PDS) and midday meals in schools, by 2024.

Fortification

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) defines fortification as "deliberately increasing the content of essential micronutrients in a food so as to improve the nutritional quality of food and to provide public health benefits with minimal risk to health".
• It is the addition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc, and Vitamin A & D to staple foods such as rice, milk and salt to improve their nutritional content.
• These nutrients may or may not have been originally present in the food before processing.

Fortification of Rice:

• According to the Food Ministry, fortification of rice is a cost-effective and complementary strategy to increase vitamin and mineral content in diets.
• According to FSSAI norms, 1 kg fortified rice will contain iron (28 mg-42.5 mg), folic acid (75-125 microgram) and Vitamin B-12 (0.75-1.25 microgram)
• Rice may also be fortified with micronutrients, singly or in combination, with zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3 and Vitamin B6.
• Nodal Ministry: For rice fortification, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is the nodal agency
• Fortified rice will be packed in jute bags with the logo (‘+F’) and the line “Fortified with Iron, Folic Acid, and Vitamin B12”.
• Various technologies are available to add micronutrients to regular rice, such as coating, dusting, and ‘extrusion’.
• Extrusion: production of fortified rice kernels (FRKs) from a mixture using an ‘extruder’ machine.
  • It is considered to be the best technology for India.
  • The fortified rice kernels are blended with regular rice to produce fortified rice.
  • The cooking of fortified rice does not require any special procedure.
  • Rice is cleaned and washed in the normal way before cooking. After cooking, fortified rice retains the same physical properties and micronutrient levels as it had before cooking.

Need for fortification

• India has very high levels of malnutrition among women and children. According to the Food Ministry, every second woman in the country is anaemic and every third child is stunted.
• India has slipped to the 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 of 116 countries, from its 2020 position of 94th.
• The deficiency of micronutrients or micronutrient malnutrition, also known as “hidden hunger”, is a serious health risk.
• Rice is one of India’s staple foods, consumed by about two-thirds of the population.
• Per capita, rice consumption in India is 6.8 kg per month. Therefore, fortifying rice with micronutrients is an option to supplement the diet of the poor

Initiatives related to Fortification

Benefits of fortification

• High benefit-to-cost ratio: The Copenhagen Consensus estimates that every 1 Rupee spent on fortification results in 9 Rupees in benefits to the economy. While an initial investment to purchase both the equipment and the vitamin and mineral premix is required, the overall costs of fortification are extremely low.

Ensures a threshold level of nutrition at a very low cost—just 15 paisa to fortify a litre of oil and 2 paise for a litre of milk.

• No socio-cultural barriers: Do not require any changes in food habits and patterns of people. It is a socio-culturally acceptable way to deliver nutrients to people
• No alteration of food characteristics: Does not alter the characteristics of the food like the taste, aroma or the texture of the food
• Quick implementation: It can be implemented quickly as well as show results in improvement of health in a relatively short period of time.
• Wide reach: Since the nutrients are added to widely consumed staple foods, fortification is an excellent way to improve the health of a large section of the population, all at once.

Issues with fortification

• Problem with excess iron: Wrt anaemia, haemoglobin synthesis doesn’t happen with just iron alone; many other elements are required in far larger quantities, especially good quality protein, vitamin B and C, folic acid, among others.
  • Tuberculosis, malaria and other infections become uncontrollable when iron is given at the acute phase of these infections. New evidence shows that high ferritin is associated with diabetes, especially during pregnancy.
• Loss of natural protective substances: Sometimes, fortification can have the opposite effect. Natural foods contain protective substances such as phytochemicals and polyunsaturated fat that are adversely affected by the process of blending micronutrients.
• Market-driven solution: The researchers are worried that the push towards fortification is more to help the industry than the people and is an international market-driven solution without any scientific logic.

Mandatory fortification will create markets that will be hard to withdraw when we have achieved the target of reduced micronutrient deficiency.

• Globally, scientific studies have shown that fortification programmes lead to increased market share for larger formal players, and reduce the market share of the informal sector.
• High cost: The fortification expenditure of only the rice delivered through the social safety networks will cost the public exchequer about Rs 2,600 crores annually.
• Impact on small industries: Fortification creates an assured market for multinationals. It could threaten the livelihoods of small units across India. Like, in the case of rice and oil processing. Although the FSSAI claims that medium and large rice millers will be incentivised to fortify rice, the process itself is expensive and prohibitive for small players. An indicative cost of setting up rice fortification infrastructure for a medium-sized mill is Rs 3.2 crore, according to the government.

Measures

• A diverse and quality diet is more helpful: National Institute of Nutrition recommended that a diverse natural diet is required to meet the normal population's need for micronutrients in its Nutrient Requirements of Indians released 2020.
• School meals programmes: dietary diversity by adding animal and plant protein like eggs, dairy, pulses along with vegetables and fruit.
• Amrut Krishi: an organic farming technique that would lead to an increase in food nutrition.
• Kitchen gardens: A study has shown that vegetables grown in organic kitchen gardens increase haemoglobin levels.
• Include less processed or unpolished rice in the public distribution system. This would make sure that rice bran, a rich source of various micronutrients reached people.

Connect local communities, farmers, micro, small and medium processors and others with local nutrition programmes.

• They can supply the raw materials as well as any locally prepared food-to-food fortificants such as syrups, biscuits, porridge, powders and various products made from local ingredients like starchy foods, vegetables, fruit, flowers, nuts, oils, and animal products.

Exam track

Prelims take away

• Fortification
• Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016
• National Nutrition strategy, 2017
• National Dairy Development Board
• Biofortification

Mains track

Q. What do you understand by food fortification? Discuss the various types of it while discussing the challenges and benefits associated