Commentary: Food Fortification: African Countries Can Make More Progress

Abstract

CitationMethod A, Tulchinsky TH. Commentary: Food fortification: African countries can make more progress. Adv Food Technol Nutr Sci Open J. 2015; SE(1): S22-S28.

Conventional and food‐to‐food fortification: An appraisal of past practices and lessons learned

“…In addition, according to Black et al (), women and children are the major targets suffering from consequences of micronutrient deficiency such as poor pregnancy outcomes, children's impaired mental, and physical development. Up to 3.1–3.5 million of children under 5 years old die every year and women of reproductive age living in low‐ and middle‐income countries because of undernutrition (fetal growth restriction, suboptimum breastfeeding, stunting, wasting, and deficiencies of vitamin A, iodine, zinc, iron, vitamin D deficiency, rickets, osteomalacia, and thyroid deficiency) (Black et al, , ; Mandelbaum, ; Method & Tulchinsky, ). Zinc deficiency is a risk factor with adverse long‐term effects on growth, immunity, and metabolic status of surviving offspring (Harika et al, ).…”

“…Technical fortification challenges rely on (a) nonappropriateness of fortification causing nutrients' loss, (b) sunlight exposure of fortified foods by retailers, (c) nonregular monitoring and unreliable quality control procedures by companies. The most important challenge is to ensure a regulatory monitoring that aims at meeting fortified foods to national fortification standards (Method & Tulchinsky, ). Governments in developing countries may not have the resources to effectively monitor compliance, especially when there are many small processing companies operating.…”

“…Indeed, they generate several diseases either infectious or chronic and therefore impacts the life's quality and epidemiological parameters such as morbidity and mortality (Verma, ). As a consequence, this type of malnutrition leads to premature death, disability, and reduced work capacity (Black et al, ) and more often reaches children and women of reproductive age (Method & Tulchinsky, ). Food fortification is considered as the most appropriate preventive approach against malnutrition caused by micronutrient deficiencies (Bhagwat, Gulati, Sachdeva, & Sankar, ).…”

“…Food fortification is considered as the most appropriate preventive approach against malnutrition caused by micronutrient deficiencies (Bhagwat, Gulati, Sachdeva, & Sankar, ). For many years, food fortification has been used as a cost‐effective means to prevent micronutrient malnutrition (Method & Tulchinsky, ). Considerable studies have been carried out to develop food fortification in developing countries (Akhtar, Anjum, & Anjum, ; Bhagwat et al, ; Mishra, ).…”

The Effect of Moringa oleifera Leaf Powder on the Physical Quality, Nutritional Composition and Consumer Acceptability of White and Brown Breads

“…Moringa oleifera is one of 13 species of the Moringaceae family of plants and is widely researched. This plant originated in India and Africa but is now widely grown in other parts of the world [ 7 ]. Not only can Moringa oleifera thrive under different climatic conditions—i.e., in tropical and subtropical countries—it also has nutritional, antioxidant and phytochemical benefits [ 8 ].…”