Rice Fortification

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. 

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.  

Source: TH