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What are they
According to the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS, food fortification or enrichment is: “the addition of one or more essential nutrients to a breath for the purpose of preventing or correcting a demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the population or in specific population groups” . It is a strategy to prevent and control the deficiency of vitamins and minerals.
What are the advantages of fortification:
- Does not require the development of new eating habits
The added nutrient(s) are incorporated into the diet in low amounts, so there is little chance of excessively high intake.
- Benefits in the shortest time the majority of the population suffering from malnutrition through the improvement of food that is part of the diet.
There are different types of fortification:
| MASSIVE FORTIFICATION |
FOCUSED FORTIFICATION |
"COMERCIAL" FORTIFICATION
(voluntary)
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| Regulation of fortified foods and are consumed by the majority of the population |
For specific population groups |
Industries take initiative to add nutrients to processed foods |
In Central America the following massive fortification programs are carried out:
- Sugar Fortification with VITAMIN A
Guatemala was the first country in the world to implement and maintain it. It is currently carried out in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Sugar was chosen because it is widely consumed by the entire population.
- Fortification of wheat flour with iron, B-complex vitamins and folic acid
With this program, iron and vitamin levels were stabilized for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It is mainly consumed in the form of bread, being a good source of iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid.
- Fortification of salt with iodine
In Central America there is no other source of iodine other than salt.
Salt fortification programs in Central American countries meet the nutritional requirements of the population. There is still a population that does not have access to salt fortified with iodine.
- Fortification of salt with fluorine
It is a successful program carried out in Costa Rica, achieving a reduction in caries from 9 to 3 in children.
A fortified food is the same as a nutritionally enhanced food (NEF)?
NEF or nutritionally enhanced foods are foods that have improved the quality of their protein, by supplementation, their energy content and quantity of micronutrients. Some of them can be:
Bread, pasta and cookies
Popular foods based on other grains
Milk substitutes, extenders of animal origin
Examples of NEF:
Nutritionally Enhanced School Cracker
Nutritionally enhanced cookie for women of childbearing age
Nutritionally enhanced porridge.
Nutritionally enhanced tortilla
Incaparina
Bibliography:
INCAP. (2015) CADENA: Alimentos nutricionalmente mejorados.
Martínez, C., Mazariegos, D. (2013) Fortificación de alimentos y el control de las deficiencias de micronutrientes.
CONAFOR. (2010). Consolidado de legislación para la fortificación de alimentos.
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