Government is planning to bring a legislation on food fortification to combat high malnutrition in children with focus on dietary diversification and supplementation in the foods.
"With large scale prevalence of micro-nutrient deficiencies and its impact on growth and development, especially in young children, adolescents and pregnant and lactating mothers, we have initiated the process to put in place legislative measures regarding food fortification," sources in the Women and Child Development Ministry said.
The Ministry recently held deliberations with other government departments and organisations on current micronutrient deficiencies situation in the country, the global scenario and various strategies to address the issue. It also focused on deficiencies related to iron, vitamins, iodine and folic acid.
"We discussed that dietary diversification, supplementation, bio-fortification for effective food fortification are some of the strategies which can be used as a tool to address issues of micro-nutrient deficiency," he said.
Government plans to exploit its wide-reach programmes like Integrated Child Development Services, Mid-Day Meal and Public Distribution System to reach the target beneficiaries.
He said that different options for food fortification in staple food items like wheat flour, rice, salt, milk and cooking oils and their impact in lowering under-nutrition, stunting, anemia and hypothyroidism were also discussed at the meeting.
"The important issues which were flagged were economic viability of food fortification, potential strategies and likely approaches," the source said.
The micro-nutrient deficiencies, besides adversely affecting overall growth and development also lead to cognitive impairment, reduced immunity and increased morbidity and mortality.
