The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) today launched a pilot milk fortification project in collaboration with the World Bank and Tata Trusts.
"Vitamin A and D deficiencies are widely prevalent in India. Fortification of appropriate foods with vitamin A and D is a viable strategy to tackle micro-nutrient malnutrition," NDDB chairman Dilip Rath said while launching a pilot milk fortification project at Anand in Gujarat today.
The World Bank, Tata Trusts and NDDB are collaborating to implement this pilot milk fortification project. The Tata Trusts will provide fortificants (vitamins) free of cost for first six months and at 50 per cent cost for next six months to the milk unions and milk producer companies participating in this pilot initiative, a statement issued here said.
Since milk is consumed by majority, fortification of milk with vitamin A and D is an excellent way of addressing dietary deficiencies, Rath said.
This pilot initiative is financed by the South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (SAFANSI), administered by the World Bank. SAFANSI seeks to address chronic malnutrition by fostering cross cutting actions to achieve measurable improvements in food and nutrition security in the countries of the South Asia region.
The NDDB will develop protocols for milk fortification, train participating milk unions and producer companies to fortify milk, build human resources to provide support to these institutions for fortified milk production /associated quality control and conduct dissemination workshops to share the outcomes.
The Board also organised milk fortification awareness workshop today. MDs of federations, CEOs of milk unions/ producers companies, officers of the World Bank, Tata Trusts, FSSAI and NDDB, participated in the workshop. It provided an opportunity to representatives from over 70 institutions for project briefing, open discussions and experience sharing on milk fortification.
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