Food fortification, where key micronutrients are added to common food staples, is recommended by the World Health Organization as a way to “fight the consequences of vitamin and mineral deficiencies” — including iodine deficiency disorders, anemia and iron deficiency, and neural tube defects.
But it does not currently happen at the scale health agencies would like. It’s a cost effective intervention that “reaches the very poorest,” Lawrence Haddad, executive director of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, told Devex. But despite that, more countries are not fortifying staple foods than those that are, he added. “So it feels like a real missed opportunity and unfinished business if you like.”
This was the motivation, Haddad said, for delegates at the 76th World Health Assembly last month to adopt a resolution to accelerate “safe and effective food fortification.”