Vitamin food fortification today

Abstract

Historically, food fortification has served as a tool to address population-wide nutrient deficiencies such as rickets by vitamin D fortified milk. This article discusses the different policy strategies to be used today. Mandatory or voluntary fortification and fortified foods, which the consumer needs, also have to comply with nutritional, regulatory, food safety and technical issues. The ‘worldwide map of vitamin fortification’ is analysed, including differences between develop and developing countries. The vitamins, folate and vitamin D, are taken as practical examples in the review of the beneficial effect of different strategies on public health. The importance of the risk–benefit aspect, as well as how to identify the risk groups, and the food vehicles for fortification is discussed.

Regulatory and Policy-Related Aspects of Calcium Fortification of Foods. Implications for Implementing National Strategies of Calcium Fortification

“…Food fortification has the advantage of not requiring modification of food habits which can lead to a higher level of acceptability than other strategies [25]. Currently, more than 130 countries have mandatory fortification of salt with iodine, and around 85 have mandatory fortification of wheat flour with micronutrients such as iron, iodine, folate, and vitamin A [26] Food fortification strategies have been implemented for more than 80 years and have contributed to an improvement in health by lowering the incidence of goitre, anaemia, night blindness, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra [27,28]. Since micronutrients also have a long-term impact in achieving and maintaining optimum health across all life stages, food fortification strategies have moved from preventing the occurrence of these diseases to ensuring populations reach an adequate nutrient intake [8].…”

Effect of dietary vitamin D3 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 supplementation on plasma and milk 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 concentration in dairy cows

“…However, because milk and dairy products are widely consumed, they have been identified as an ideal vehicle to increase vitamin D consumption. One way of achieving this is through fortification, which does occur in some countries, such as Canada, United States, and Finland (Cashman and Kiely, 2016), but not all (de Lourdes Samaniego-Vaesken et al, 2012;Cashman and Kiely, 2016). Thus, additional strategies of enrichment of animal food sources by adding vitamin D into the livestock feeds could have potential to increase the vitamin D status of humans (Cashman and Kiely, 2016).…”

Lactic acid bacteria as a cell factory for riboflavin production

“…In recent years, the use of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) was proposed for vitamin synthesis. These microorganisms are able to synthesize B-group vitamins particularly riboflavin to obtain fermented bio-enriched food (Capozzi et al, 2011;Laino et al, 2012;Vaesken et al, 2012). The use of LAB is a common practice in the dairy industry, and the addition of the riboflavin-producing strain into fermented products such as fermented milks, yoghurt, and cheeses increases riboflavin concentrations, which is feasible and economically viable (LeBlanc et al, 2005a).…”