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Rice Fortification

Posted on May 2, 2022 by admin1  522

In News

  • Recently, 600 rice mills in Telangana installed blending machines for rice fortification.

About

  • FCI approval: The mills started installing blending machines since the Food Corporation of India had agreed to buy fortified boiled rice while totally rejecting boiled rice.
  • Current issue: The refusal of the Centre to lift boiled rice from the State had kicked off a major protest by the State government.
  • Boiled rice: As the paddy cultivated in Rabi season generally yielded broken rice due to higher temperatures during harvest, the State government had been supplying boiled rice to the FCI all these years.
    • But, the FCI had refused to buy boiled rice from this year as it had surplus stocks at its godowns.

Significance of this move

  • Centre proposed supply of fortified rice in the public distribution system to improve immunity levels of people in the background of COVID and other viruses.
  • It will be included in mid-day meals for school children and PDS.
  • The blending machines will also be used to the stocks already in the godowns of FCI for PDS.

Rice Fortification

  • The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) defines fortification as “deliberately increasing the content of essential micronutrients in a food so as to improve the nutritional quality of food and to provide public health benefit with minimal risk to health”.
  • In simple words, Rice fortification is a process of adding micronutrients to regular rice using extrusion technology.
    • Various technologies are available to add micronutrients to regular rice, such as coating, dusting, and ‘extrusion’.
  • This involved production of fortified rice kernels from a mixture using an extruder machine.
  • The fortified rice kernels were then blended with regular rice to produce fortified rice.
  • The Fortified rice will be packed in jute bags with the logo (‘+F’) and the line “Fortified with Iron, Folic Acid, and Vitamin B12”.
  • The rice fortification was the fifth behind salt, oils, milk and wheat which was targeted for fortification by the Centre by 2024. 

Has the government distributed fortified rice earlier?

  • In 2019-20, the Ministry launched a centrally sponsored pilot scheme, ‘Fortification of Rice and its Distribution under PDS’, for three years.
  • Six states, including Maharashtra and Gujarat, have started distributing fortified rice as part of the pilot scheme.

Has any other country tried this?

  • Seven countries have mandated rice fortification: the United States, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and the Solomon Islands.

What is ‘Hidden Hunger’?

  • It is the deficiency of micronutrients.
  • Eating one’s full may not always be tantamount to eating healthy, and the issue is not limited to junk food.
  • Globally, diets deficient in vitamins and minerals affect more than 2 billion people and India has an especially high burden of such people, being home to about 60 percent of anaemic preschool children, 50 percent of anaemic pregnant women, and a quarter of anaemic men.
  • Though it may be hard to detect, its ramifications can be serious.  

 

WHO Recommendations

  • Fortification of rice with iron is recommended as a public health strategy to improve the iron status of populations, in settings where rice is a staple food.
  • Fortification of rice with vitamin A may be used as a public health strategy to improve the iron status and vitamin A nutrition of populations.
  • Fortification of rice with folic acid may be used as a public health strategy to improve the folate nutritional status of populations.

What is the need of fortification?  

  • Global Hunger Index (GHI): India stands at the 101st position among 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 report. In India, women and children are facing a severe level of malnutrition.
  • Malnutrition: India has very high levels of malnutrition among women and children.
  • Stunting and Anaemia: Every third child is stunted and every second woman is anaemic in the country.

Advantages of Food fortification

  • Eliminate malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies.
  • Provides extra nutrition at affordable costs.
  • Safe: Fortification is a safe method of improving nutrition among people. The addition of micronutrients to food does not pose a health risk to people.
  • Socio-culturally acceptable way: It does not require any changes in the food habits and patterns of people. It is a socio-culturally acceptable way to deliver nutrients to people.
  • Cost-effective: Food fortification is a cost-effective strategy to improve the nutrition status of populations and it is associated with high economic benefits.
    • It requires an initial investment to purchase both the equipment and the vitamin and mineral premix, but overall costs of fortification are extremely low.

Disadvantages of Food fortification

  • Low coverage: Only a handful of nutrients are added in the process of fortification. 
  • Other nutritional deficiencies remain untreated by the process.
  • Fail to reach the poorest segments of society: Many times, fortified food products fail to reach the poorest segments of society, who are among the worst section affected with nutritional deficiencies.
    • Low purchasing power and a weak distribution channel are responsible for this problem.
  • Fortified foods could lead to a nutritional overdose.

Way forward

  • Rice is one of India’s staple foods, consumed by about two-thirds of the population. Per capita rice consumption in India is 6.8 kg per month. Therefore, fortifying rice with micronutrients is an option to supplement the diet of the poor.
  • The central government has announced the supply of fortified rice through government schemes such as the Public Distribution System and PM-Poshan to address the issue of malnutrition among the poor by 2024.  

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

  • It has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which consolidates various acts and orders that have hitherto handled food-related issues.
  • It works as an autonomous body established under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
  • Aims:
    • To establish a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety and standards.
    • To lay down science-based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.

Public Distribution System

  • It is an Indian food security system for the management of food scarcity through distribution at affordable prices.
  • It was established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
  • It is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and State Governments.
  • The Central Government, through the Food Corporation of India (FCI), purchases, stores, transports and allocates food grains to States.
  • The States identify eligible families, issue Ration Cards and supervise the functioning of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) etc.
  • Currently, wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene are allocated to the States/UTs for distribution and a few of them also distribute additional items like pulses, edible oils, iodized salt, spices, etc.

Source: TH

 
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