Food

Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals.

Nutrient:

It is a substance that provides nourishment essential for the maintenance of life and growth. In other words, these are components of food that are essential for our body.

Component of food

Our food is composed of various types of nutrients such as Carbohydrates, Proteins, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals, dietary fibres etc. apart from water.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates: a form of Sugar and Starch that gives us energy.

• Starch test: Put 2-3 drops of dilute Iodine solution on food to be tested. If food changes colour to become blue-black = Contains starch.

Carbohydrate breakdown during respiration primarily involves the process of glycolysis, the citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle), and oxidative phosphorylation. In glycolysis, one molecule of glucose is broken down into two molecules of pyruvate, producing a small amount of ATP and NADH. Pyruvate is then transported into the mitochondria. Oxygen is required to derive energy from this reaction.

Protein:

Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues.

• There are about 20 different amino acids that link together in different combinations.
• Our body uses them to make new proteins, such as muscle and bone, and other compounds such as enzymes and hormones.
• It can also be used as an energy source.
• Needed for growth and repair of the body. Also called body-building food.

Protein test: If food is solid, make its powder. Put some of it in a clean test tube, add 10 drops of water and shake it. Add a few drops of copper sulphate solution of caustic soda. Few minutes. Violet colour = proteins.

Fats:

A long chain of hydrocarbons. Fats give us much more energy compared to carbohydrates, from Plant sources: Nuts, oils etc. Animal sources: Ghee, milk, butter etc.

• Fat test: Crush food item wrapped in a piece of paper: The Oily patch on the paper is Fat.

Lipids

(Substances insoluble in water): Triglycerides, Cholesterols, steroids, Vitamin ADEK – Oil soluble.

• Used for energy storage, protection, insulation, Cell membranes, lubrication etc.
• Made up of :
  • Glycerol + Fatty acids (group attached)- Triglycerides & Phospholipids
  • Carbon rings – Steroids: For example, Cholesterol, testosterone, and estrogen and Waxes.

Fatty Acids:

Contained in fats.

• Made up of Acid group + Hydrocarbon chain(end with a methyl group) i.e. Carboxylic group + Aliphatic chain.
• Can be saturated or unsaturated.

2 types of FATS:

• Saturated Fats: long single bond chain. Solid at room temperature;
  • Formation: It is created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil (a process called hydrogenation) to make it more solid.
  • For example, Ghee consists of approximately 65% saturated fats, 25% monounsaturated and 5% polyunsaturated.
• Unsaturated Fats: Double/Triple bonds. Liquids generally: Oil
  • Mono-unsaturated: some good fats. [Mainly Cis]
  • Naturally formed(cis): produced in the gut of some grazing animals as also found in animal products like meat, milk, and milk products. For example, Omega 3.
  • Trans Fats: They generally increase the shelf life of the food and stabilize their flavours.
    • Sources:
      • It is naturally present in some proportion of red meat and dairy products,
      • Industrially produced trans fats are used solely to prolong the shelf life of products at less cost.
      • Even when the fat/oil contains less than 2% trans fat, repeated use at high temperatures can increase the trans fat content.
    • There are two sources of trans fat, also known as trans fatty acids:
      • Artificial Trans fat formed during food processing – They can be found in many of the same foods as saturated fat(during Hydrogenation).
        • These can include Coffee creamer, Crackers, cookies, cakes, frozen pies etc.
        • Vanaspati Ghee, butter and margarine are their main source.
        • Current permitted level by FSSAI: 2% by weight(from 2022).
      • Natural Trans Fats: in some meat and dairy products.
    • Partially hydrogenated oils are used by food manufacturers to improve the texture, shelf life, and flavour stability of foods. Not good either.

Heart Attack Rewind campaign:

To warn citizens about the health hazards of consuming trans fats and offer strategies to avoid them through healthier alternatives.

REPLACE initiative

WHO urged developing nations to eliminate man-made trans fatty acids from their food supplies by 2023.

• REPLACE: Review, Promote, Legislate, Assess, Create(awareness) & Reinforce
• It leads to an elevated LDL (bad) blood cholesterol level can increase your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. HDL(High-density Lipoprotein) is good blood
  • Heart disease 23% rise with a 2% intake of LDL.
• It is the main cause of Type-2 diabetes.

FSSAI Regulations on FATs:

FSSAI has gradually capped it down over the years.

1. 2016: the trans fat content limit was halved from 10% to 5%,
2. 2020: FSSAI capped it to 3% by 2021.
3. From January 1, 2022, India will join a select group of countries limiting industrial trans fat to 2% by mass of the total oils/fats present in the product.
4. And eliminating it by the end of 2022.

• Applicability: Edible oils and fats that are used as ingredients, including emulsions such as margarines.
• Advantages of the move:
  1. Good for export: It is similar to EU standards adopted this April, thus these products can be exported. According to a 2020 WHO report, 32 countries have already adopted these norms.
  2. Good for health: The benefits of reducing trans fat can become quickly apparent, as seen in Denmark; three years after the cap came into effect in 2004, it saw a reduction of about 14 deaths attributable to cardiovascular diseases per 1,00,000 population.

• Development of Industry: It is now well known that trans fat can be completely eliminated and replaced with healthier substitutes without any change in the food taste or cost. According to WHO, a dozen large multinational food companies have already committed to eliminating industrially produced trans fat from all their products by 2023.

Minerals:

Inorganic substances are needed in small amounts by the body. Each is essential for proper growth. Most items have more than one nutrient. For Example,

• Iodine: Seafood (Fish, crab), salt, Milk products (yoghurt), Green leafy vegetables.
• Phosphorous: Milk, Banana, beans, lentils nuts.
• Iron: Green leafy vegetables (cabbage), fruits(apple, pears), sunflower seeds, liver, lamb.
• Calcium: Milk, eggs.

Vitamins

Vitamins are organic compounds that are essential for our bodies to function properly. The body cannot synthesise these naturally and therefore are required in small quantities.

Protecting our body against diseases & keeping our eyes, bones, teeth, and gums healthy. Known by different names: A(skin & eyes), C(many diseases), D(Helps body to use Ca by bones),E and K;

Group B of vitamin is called ‘B-complex’.

Vitamin/mineral	Deficiency/disorder	Symptoms
A: Retinal/Retinols	Loss of vision	Poor vision, loss of vision in darkness, sometimes complete loss
B1: Thiamine	Beriberi	Weak muscles & very little energy to work
B2: Riboflavin	Stomatitis results in anaemia.	Skin rashes, sore throat, chapped and fissured lips.
B9: Folic Acid	Anaemia,	can lead to birth defects
B12: Cyanocobalamin	Pernicious Anaemia.	Skill becomes pale, RBC loss, loss of appetite, frequent headache.
C: Ascorbic acid	Scurvy	Bleeding gums and wounds take longer to heal
D: Cholecalciferol	Rickets	Bones become soft & bent
E: Tocopherols
K: Phylloquinone	problematic blood clotting or bleeding:	Bleeding within the digestive tract, gum bleeding, heavy menstrual bleeding, or haemorrhaging
Calcium	Bone & tooth decay
Iodine	Goitre	Glands in the neck appear swollen, Mental disability in children
Iron	Anaemia	Weakness

• ADEK: Fat soluble
• Rest Vitamins: Water Soluble

Dietary fibres:

• Also known as roughage: mainly provided by plants. Helps get rid of undigested food.
  • Whole grains, pulses, potatoes & fresh fruits and vegetables: main sources of roughage.
• Water: mostly we get from liquids we drink, also from the food we eat.
• Deficiency Diseases: caused by lack of nutrients over a long period.

Food Adulteration

Adulteration is a legal term meaning that a food product fails to meet legal standards. One form of adulteration is the addition of another substance to a food item to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which results in the loss of the actual quality of the food item. These substances may be either available food items or non-food items.

These can be of two types – Intentional and Unintentional.

Intentional Adulteration

Products	Name of Adulterant
Milk and Milk Products	Melamine, Urea, Detergent, Addition of water, Skim Milk, Vegetable oil, Synthetic milk, annatto, banana, Vanaspati, Margarine, Starch, Coal Tar dyes
Ice Cream	Starch, rice powder or wheat flour
Fruit Juice, Jam, Jellies, Pickles	Sugar, Dilution with water
Alcoholic Wine, Beer Beverages	Mislabelling of age, Chaptalization, Dilution with water
Tea leaves	Black/Bengal gram, dal husk with colour
Coffee	Chicory, roasted barley powder, tamarind seeds

Unintentional Adulteration

Unintentional adulteration is the accidental or careless addition of substances to food which changes the quality of food.

Food Colours

Food colours are categorized under food additives. Some of the food colours are harmful for human consumption hence they are not permitted.

• Congo Red: It causes stomach pain, mental retardation, brain and nerve damage.
• Orange-I: It causes diarrhoea
• Lead Chromate: It causes anaemia, abortion, paralysis, mental retardation & brain damage.
• Auramine: It causes lesions in the liver and kidneys.
• Malachite Green: It causes tumours of the lungs, breast, ovary and liver. It causes abnormalities of the skin and eyes.

Alfa-Toxin M1

According to the FSSAI, 5.7% of Milk samples in India contain aflatoxin M1. Its source is farm feed and fodder, which is not regulated.

• The highest residue levels of aflatoxin M1 in milk were seen in samples from three States — Tamil Nadu (88 out of 551 samples), Delhi (38 out of 262) and Kerala (37 out of 187).
• It is a public health concern especially in infants and young children as milk constitutes one of the major sources of nutrients.
• It is also a Carcinogen.

Lead poisoning

Lead (Pb) is a cumulative toxicant (increasing in quantity in the body over many years) that affects multiple body systems (CaCO3 and fat-containing tissues).

• According to a new report launched by UNICEF and Pure Earth (a Non-Profit Organization), around one-third i.e.800 million children globally, are affected by lead poisoning.
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Drinking Water Specifications prescribe lead content in water not to exceed 50 parts per billion (ppb).
• World Health Organisation (WHO) limit for lead in drinking water is 5 ppb.

No Newspaper to Wrap Food:

A 2017 Advisory to all states and UTs – It has asked commissioners of food safety to restrict the use of newspapers for packing, serving and storing food items.

• This ink which is used for printing newspapers may contain bioactive materials, harmful pigments, colours, additives, binders, preservatives, chemical contaminants and even pathogenic microorganisms that may pose potential risks to human health.
• Even newspaper or cardboard boxes made of recycled paper may be contaminated with mineral oils, metallic contaminants and harmful chemicals like phthalates which can cause digestive problems and also lead to severe toxicity.
• Older people, teenagers, children and people with compromised vital organs and immune systems are at a greater risk of acquiring cancer-related health complications after they are exposed to food items packed in such materials.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) :

FSSAI is an autonomous body established under MoA&FW. It is a Statutory Body, established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and regulation in India.

It sets the rules and guidelines for food safety in India.

FSSAI is located in 5 regions:

• Northern Region – With head office in New Delhi
• Eastern Region
• North Eastern Region
• Western Region
• Southern Region

Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2020:

To revamp the functioning and jurisdiction of FSSAI. It introduces 70 amendments in the present FSSAI Act, 2006. Some of the amendments are:

• More powers to FSSAI, through the introduction of section 92 A – for making regulations
• Penalties and punishments for contravention of the Act, Rules and Regulations. Some new sections and subsections under penalties and offences have been added.
• FSSAI can prescribe a mechanism for handling food safety incidents.
• Setting standards:
  1. The jurisdiction extended to the animal feed industry.
  2. The FSSAI will specify standards for food contact materiale., food packaging material. The food packaging material is mentioned as “food contact material” in the bill.
• New definitions for Proprietary and Novel food have been included in the Act.
• The Food Authority will set up the FSSAI Fund to further the objectives of the Act.
• In the event the food industry association, consumer association, or any individual needs to entrust food testing for data generation or to create information for the general public on food safety it shall carry out the same in the food testing laboratories that are recognized by Food Authority. The information so collected shall be shared with the Food Authority before releasing the same to the public.

Regulations:

Scheme for strengthening of Food Testing Infrastructure:

Capacity building of the Food Testing labs is also an important component of this scheme.

• 45 State/UT Food Testing labs (at least one in each State/UT & two in larger states).
• 14 Referral Food Testing labs will be upgraded to enable them to obtain NABL accreditation.
  • Referral Food Laboratory at Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI) through the provision of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities has been made.
• 62 Mobile Testing labs will also be established across all States/UTs.
  • There are currently 4 Mobile food Testing labs in Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala & Tamil Nadu.
• In addition, a School Food and Hygiene Programme has been envisaged under which basic Food Testing labs will be set up in 1500 schools/colleges across the country to promote a culture of safe and wholesome food.

Estimated cost of ₹482 Cr

Regulating the sale of Junk food in Schools:

• Prohibition: on sale & advertisement of food rich in fat, sugar and salt to schoolchildren:
  1. Inside the school premises.
  2. Within 50 m around it.
• It comes in response to Delhi HC’s direction to Central agencies to frame norms to promote healthy diets in schools. According to a 2017 study, 14.4Mn children are obese in India, 2nd highest in the world.
• Other regulations:
  • It prohibits food companies that manufacture such items from advertising or offering such food for free on school premises or within 50m of it.
  • Food companies are prohibited from using their logos, brand names and product names on books and other educational materials, as well as on school property such as buildings, buses and athletic fields.
• The way forward: FSSAI must also encourage a safe & healthy diet along with banning junk food.

Food Safety Index (SFSI)

M/o H&FW – developed by FSSAI.

• The first State Food Safety Index for the year 2018-19 was announced on the first-ever World Food Safety Day on 7th June 2019.
• The Index is a dynamic quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model that provides an objective framework for evaluating food safety across all States/UTs.
• Aim: to measure the performance of states on five significant parameters of Food Safety:
  1. FSSAI norms Compliance – 30%
  2. Human Resources and Institutional Data – 20%
  3. Food Testing – Infrastructure and Surveillance – 20%
  4. Training & Capacity Building – 20%
  5. Consumer Empowerment – 10%
• The index ranks states in 3 Categories :
  • Larger states: Gujarat was the top-ranking state, followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
  • Smaller states: Goa stood first followed by Meghalaya and Manipur.
  • UTs: Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and New Delhi secured top ranks.

Schemes launched by FSSAI

Eat Right India Movement:

The multi-sectorial effort with  three initiatives:

• Safe and Nutritious Food (SNF) initiative: Social behaviour change around food safety.
• Eat Healthy Campaign: controlling daily intake of salt, fat, and sugar;
  • Phasing out of Trans-fat from diets and promoting healthier food.
• Food Fortification: of 5 staple foods: wheat flour, rice, oil, milk and salt.

Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) Initiative:

It is an initiative to enable the collection and conversion of used cooking oil to bio-diesel. 64 companies at 101 locations have been identified to enable the collection of used cooking oil.

UCO (Used cooking oil) standards:

• Total Polar Compounds (TPC): 25% max. It is formed during repeated frying of unsaturated fatty acids.
• FSSAI is working in partnership with BDAI (Biodiesel Association of India) and the food industry to ensure effective compliance with UCO standards.

Triple E strategy:

• Education: Awareness about the campaign.
• Enforcement: of UCO standards. Curb illegal practices.
• Ecosystem: For example, Include Kabadiwala in the system. Creating Forward and backward linkages.

Food Safety Mitras (FSMs):

FSSAI is creating an ecosystem of Food Safety Mitras (FSMs) that will help food business operators (FBOs) with licensing and registration, training and auditing hygiene at different institutions such as schools, colleges and corporate campuses.

Three types of Mitras:

• Digital Mitra: Individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset and IT skills can help food businesses with their compliances.
• Hygiene Mitra: Domain experts from the food industry are encouraged to get associated under FSM to become hygiene auditors.
• Trainer Mitra: Any persons who are in the food business or food professionals can be certified as Food Safety trainers.

Importance:

• Strengthen food safety administration and scale up the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.
• Support SME food businesses to comply with the food safety laws and facilitate licensing and registration, hygiene ratings and training.
• Create new employment opportunities for youth, particularly those with food and nutrition backgrounds. The FSMs would undergo training and certification by FSSAI to do their work and get paid by food businesses for their services.
• The scheme has no provision related to the testing of GM crops.

Malnutrition

Malnutrition refers to deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients. The term malnutrition covers 2 broad groups of conditions.

1. ‘undernutrition’—which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies (a lack of important vitamins and minerals).
2. Overweight, obesity and diet-related noncommunicable diseases (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer).

Nutrition Security

Nutrition security refers to  “physical, economic and social access to a balanced diet, clean drinking water, sanitation and primary healthcare”.

MS Swaminathan had been a major advocate of Nutrition security. He had envisioned that India should move from food security to nutrition security in the coming years. For this, India must address 5 types of deficiencies:

1. Calorie deficiency:
   1. Effective use of provisions of NFSA, 2013;
   2. Taking advantage of an Enlarged food basket which includes millets in addition to rice & wheat.
2. Protein deficiency: Assuring increased protein intake by:
   1. increased pulse production &
   2. increased consumption of milk & poultry products.
3. Hidden Hunger: Micronutrient malnutrition: through the establishment of genetic gardens.
   • Anaemia: iron deficiency causing chronic systemic inflammation.
     • Affects women and Children [See Iron Plus initiative]
     • Extended period of exposure to PM 2.5 raises anaemia risk in kids under 5: IIT-Delhi study
     • According to the India NFHS-4(2015-16), 53.1% of women in India with 15–49 years of age and 58.5% of children under five were anaemic.
   • Possibly a National grid of genetic gardens of bio-fortified plants.
   • Agro-biodiversity

• Food Quality & Safety: There should be a provision of clean drinking water, sanitation, primary healthcare & Nutrition literacy. Improving post-harvest management.
• Grass root synergy & Convergence: POSHAN Abhiyaan.

Challenges to Nutrition Security:

In the recent times, we have come across a variety of challenges:

• Climate change has challenged agricultural production itself.
• Sustainability challenges: Agri-food systems are facing new and unprecedented challenges, especially related to economic and ecological sustainability, nutrition and the adoption of new agricultural technologies.
• Vulnerability to disasters and extreme events,
• Reducing biodiversity:  Only 30 crops form the basis of the world’s agriculture.

Strategies for addressing micronutrient malnutrition

Various strategies can be adopted to address micronutrient Malnutrition:

1. Supplementation
2. Food Fortification
3. Dietary Diversification
4. Community-based Strategies

Supplementation:

A technical approach in which nutrients are delivered directly to the desired population using syrup or pills. Normally supplementation programs are used only as a short-term measure and are then replaced with long-term, sustainable food-based measures such as fortification and dietary modification.

1. Oil soluble nutrients such as Vitamin A to infants, children under 5 years of age and postpartum women. Because a single high-dose vitamin A supplement improves vitamin A stores for about 4–6 months, supplementation two or three times a year is usually adequate.
2. Water-soluble vitamins and minerals: supplements need to be consumed more frequently.

Advantage:

• Capable of supplying an optimal amount of a specific nutrient or nutrients, in a highly absorbable form,
• The fastest way to control deficiency in individuals or population groups that have been identified as being deficient.
• In India, it has been widely used to provide iron and folic acid to pregnant women.

Disadvantages:

• Lack of proper supplies and poor compliance are consistently reported.

Dietary Diversification

Dietary diversification includes Increasing both the quantity and the range of micronutrient-rich foods consumed.

Advantages of dietary diversification:

• No side effects: These are the foods that humans have been consuming for millennia without any problems.
• Even absorption of nutrients simultaneously:  it has the potential to improve the intake of many food constituents like antioxidants and probiotics not just micronutrients simultaneously.
• Long-term sustainability: dietary diversity is the key to addressing micronutrient malnutrition as well as is good for crop rotation as well as resource sustainability.
• Supports local agriculture: Traditionally many varieties of crops have been grown locally which can be a boon to such a system.

Challenges:

• Requires carefully curating local agriculture: It requires the implementation of programs that improve the availability of different types of micronutrient-rich foods (such as animal products, fruits and vegetables) in adequate quantities.
• Can be expensive: In poorer communities, attention also needs to be paid to ensuring that dietary intakes of oils and fats are adequate for enhancing the absorption of the limited supplies of micronutrients.

Food fortification:

Addition of micronutrients (essential trace elements + vitamins)  to processed foods. Most fortifying agents are vitamins and minerals, and in some cases essential amino acids and proteins.

Objectives of Food Fortification:

• Nutrition enhancement: To maintain the nutritional quality of foods, keeping nutrient levels adequate to correct or prevent specific nutritional deficiencies for the population at large or in groups at risk of certain deficiencies (i.e. elderly, vegetarians, pregnant women, etc.)
• Commercial View: To increase the added nutritional value of a product; and to provide certain technological functions in food processing.
• Enrichment: To restore nutrients lost during food processing, a process known as enrichment. In this case, an amount approximately equal to the amount lost from natural content is added.

Requirements

• Consumption in adequate amounts: The fortified food(s) need to be consumed in adequate amounts by a large proportion of the target individuals in a population.
• Absorbability: Nutrients added, (fortificants), should be well absorbed (bioavailability of the nutrient should be good).
• Culturally acceptable: It should not alter the colour, taste, odour, or appearance of the carrier food.
• Durability: The amount of nutrients added should be stable and must not be lost much during storage and while cooking.
• Cost-effectiveness: This should be available to the general population at a reasonable cost.

Fortified foods	Fortifying agent
Salt	Iodine, Iron
Flour, bread, Rice	Vitamins B1, B2, niacin, Iron
Milk, margarine	Vitamins A and D
Sugar, monosodium glutamate, tea	Vitamin A
Infant formulas, cookies	Iron
Vegetable mixtures of amino acids, proteins	Vitamins, minerals,
Soy milk, orange juice	Calcium
Ready-to-eat cereals	Vitamins, minerals
Diet beverages	Vitamins, minerals
Enteral and parenteral solutions	Vitamins, minerals

Biofortification:

It is a technique of modifying the genetic variety of the crop in order to ensure that certain nutrient is fortified into the crop. This is possible when agriculture and health go hand-in-hand.

For example, Golden rice is the collective name of rice varieties that are genetically modified to counter vitamin A deficiency in developing countries.

Advantages of Food fortification or enrichment:

Fortification is a better method of improving the year-round supply of micronutrient-rich foods.

• Reduces hidden hunger: It can lead to relatively rapid improvements in the micronutrient status of a population, and at a very reasonable cost, especially if an advantage can be taken of existing technology and local distribution networks.
• Effective for vulnerable sections: It is a proven and effective strategy to meet the nutritional needs of a large number of people across various sections of society, including the poor and underprivileged as well as the vulnerable, such as pregnant women and young children.
• Easily acceptable: Fortification requires neither changes in existing food patterns, or habits nor individual compliance. It is socio-culturally acceptable & does not alter the characteristics of the food.
• Easy to implement: It can be introduced quickly and can produce nutritional benefits for populations in a short period.
• Supports existing programs: It reinforces and supports existing nutrition improvement programmes and is part of a broader, integrated approach to prevent micronutrient deficiencies, thereby complementing other approaches to improve health and nutrition.

Disadvantages:

• Overconsumption: Fortification could lead to hypervitaminosis and toxicities. For example, the unabsorbed iron that remains in the gut can wreak havoc among the beneficial bacteria in the large intestine. Iron causes oxidative stress, and more seriously, is implicated in diabetes andcancer
• Cost of fortification: For example, mandatory rice fortification will cost the public exchequer Rs 2,600 crore annually (not insignificant about the budget, and worth nearly 4 crore Covid vaccine doses), with poor likelihood of benefit, and posing an unnecessary risk.
• Against Crop Diversity: It might even reduce the demand for the naturally occurring diverse varieties in India.
• Impact on Livelihood of Farmers: Those who don’t have the means to fortify food can be pushed out of competition.
• Absorption is a challenge: Chemical fortification of foods is that nutrients don’t work in isolation but need each other for optimal absorption.
• Might not be sufficient: Undernourishment in India is caused by monotonous cereal-based diets with low consumption of vegetables and animal protein. Fortification of just a few nutrients might not be enough.
• Cartelisation: FSSAI relies on to promote fortification are sponsored by food companies who would benefit from it, leading to conflicts of interest.
• Might not be helpful for infants: For the first six months of life, exclusive breastfeeding is recommended. A child will get nutrition only if the lactating mother is healthy and consumes adequate nutrition which requires supplementation.

Community-based strategies:

Culturally appropriate dietary modifications should be developed to help people identify concrete actions that can improve both dietary supply and the absorption of micronutrients. These include:

• Encouraging exclusive breastfeeding up to six months of age and continued breastfeeding for older infants.
• Identifying and promoting the use of culturally appropriate weaning foods rich in micronutrients.
• Preserving micronutrients in fruits and vegetables by using solar drying or canning technologies.
• Promoting small-scale community gardens.
• Rearing small livestock.

FSSAI Strategies for Fortification

FSSAI has formulated a comprehensive regulation on the fortification of foods namely: Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018: provides for the specific role of FSSAI in the promotion of food fortification and to make fortification mandatory. This sets the premise for the national summit on fortification of food. FSSAI has operationalized standards for fortification of: Wheat-flour rice(with Fe, B12 and folic acid). Milk, Edible Oil (A, D) Double-Fortified Salt: (Iodine & Fe) Mandatory fortification: The Centre plans to mandatorily fortify rice and edible oils with vitamins and minerals. +F Logo: for Fortified foods. Food Fortification Resource Centre: to promote large-scale fortification. Indian Food Laboratory Network System (INFoLNET): to bring all stakeholders to a common platform for the establishment of a transparent food testing network by FSSAI. The National Summit on Fortification of Food to address interventions in combating micronutrient malnutrition in the country was recently inaugurated in partnership with related central ministries/departments & development partners.

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