It is well established that Staple Fortification is a simple and cost-effective way to add essential micronutrients to food. It enriches the nutritional quality of food and has emerged as an effective strategy to combat malnutrition. Additionally, staples have the potential to reach various target groups quickly and effectively through open market channels and/or public funded programs.

Further to encourage staple food fortification, Standards have been operationalized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

To ensure success of staple food-fortification programs, all parameters need to be carefully assessed. The advantages and disadvantages of the various processing methods, stability of nutrients added, conditions of storage, processing (food preparation at the household level), and safety. From a technical standpoint, nutritional stability during formulation, preparation, and processing is very crucial in determining the effective production of fortified foods.

Another challenge would be adequate availability of fortified food that can be distributed widely across income groups at an affordable and competitive price. Fortification costs are relatively low – about a fraction of the selling price and can be built into the value chain, thereby making large scale food fortification self-sustaining. Actual cost depends on the food to be fortified and micronutrients to be added. The processed food industry plays a significant role in providing such fortified food products for mass distribution.

In this context The Ministry of Food Processing Industries in association with CII is organizing a National Consultation on Staple Food Fortification on 17th March 2017 in New Delhi focused on ascertaining industry’s readiness for supporting implantation of staple food fortification including salt, edible oil and wheat flour.