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Feature
Fortified Foods: Challenges And Opportunities
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Saturday, 28 April, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Geeta Mathur, Sangeeta Sharma, Dr Manjeet Aggarwal, Dr R K Khandal
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fiogf49gjkf0d Foods are essential for the mankind in several ways and without food, it is difficult to imagine the existence of life on earth.
One of the most important functions, that foods are consumed for, pertains to the availability of essential nutrients for the human body. It is due to this reason that nutrition levels of foods are monitored to ensure the well being of humans.
In the case of malnutrition, there is always a risk of health-related problems. In fact, making nutritious foods available to all is not an easy task. And it is not always true that only the people from lower income groups suffer from malnutrition. There have been cases where even the people from higher income groups have also been found suffering from certain deficiency diseases due to deficiency of certain minerals and nutrients mainly because of eating habits. For all such deficiencies, special types of diets are recommended. Similarly, depending upon the requirements based on the activities and daily lifestyle, specific recommendations about nutrients in the food are made. For example, for athletes and sportspersons, depending upon the type of sports, special diets are given. In other words, due to one reason or the other and at one time or the other, one is asked or required to consume specially designed foods having nutrients in excess of that normally found naturally occurring. Such foods are also called as fortified foods because the foods are prepared with the additional quantities of the nutrients added into them.
Priority in India
In India, fortified foods are being given priority mainly because of the existing level of available nutrition, falling short of desired limits to the majority of the population in different parts of the country. The targeted consumers to begin with are from the lower strata of the income as far as the policy plans of the government are concerned. Fortified foods are generally meant for children and pregnant or nursing women. That means, the foods are fortified with nutrients essential for the growth of children and the well being of pregnant / nursing women. Depending upon the fortifying nutrients and also on the type of staple food involved, fortified foods are designed. The aim is to ensure the delivery of the desired amount of nutrients to the consumers.
Complex process
Designing fortified foods is a complex process, even though it looks simple on the face of it, but to be able to uniformly disperse the fortifying nutrient over an entire staple food and to maintain its homogeneity throughout the lifecycle of the fortified food is highly challenging. For success of the fortified foods, the industries as well as the regulators therefore, need a lot of R&D support.
The outline
In the present paper, various aspects of fortified food and the issues related to fortification of different types of food products with case studies have been brought out. The paper has been written with the following outline:
i. Micronutrients
ii. Micronutrients deficiencies: Indian scenario
iii. Micronutrients & food fortification
iv. Quality parameters of fortified foods
Micronutrients
The constituents of foods as such can be classified into five major basic chemistries i.e. proteins, carbohydrates, fats and oils, minerals and vitamins. Of course, water is the integral component of all foods and it serves as a carrier for the essential substances into the blood of a human body. The first and foremost reason and purpose of food pertains to the survival and existence of life, and then comes the growth and the well being. While the components present in bulk are responsible for the survival, it is the components present in minor quantities that contribute towards the growth and well being. Such components that are required in small quantities for providing nourishment in healthy development of the body are called as nutrients. When needed in trace levels, they are termed as micronutrients. As per the requirements, the nutrients are found present in different food products. Foods rich in nutrients are called as nutritious foods. For growth, one needs to consume nutritious foods on a regular basis. For well being, it is essential that the micronutrients are consumed as per the requirements. Foods rich in micronutrients and also nutrients having capability to exhibit special functions are known as functional foods and also as nutraceuticals
Why the micronutrients are that important for the well being of humans can be understood from the fact that all the factors of growth and well being are driven by the biochemical reactions which occur in the human body; thanks to the presence of micronutrients. The functioning and performance of different organs of a human body are dependent majorly on the availability of micronutrients. In the cases where the availability of micronutrients is poor and it falls short of the desired concentrations, the organs start developing deficiencies. As a result, different types of health-related problems start cropping up. In brief, it is utmost essential that the human body must acquire the desired quantities of micronutrients and subsequently make them available for the biochemical processes. It is the key, therefore, that the foods rich in micronutrients are consumed but then it is equally important that the micronutrients are absorbed as well in the body. By the way, the absorption and desorption of one micronutrient may be affected by the presence of another micronutrient. For example, for absorption of calcium, it is always recommended to take vitamin D in sufficient quantities and for the absorption of iron, it is important that along with iron, vitamin B12 and folic acid are also simultaneously taken. Since, the deficiencies of micronutrients many a times may cause bearable illnesses, one ends up living with them for long unless the real cause (i.e. deficiency of a given micronutrient of the problem) is found out.
All over the world, a sizeable population is by and large found suffering from the deficiency of one or more than one micronutrient and India is one of the countries of the world where diseases due to nutritional deficiencies are most prevalent.
Micronutrient deficiencies: Indian scenario
Today a large proportion of Indian population is suffering from malnutrition. Out of the total population of approximately 1.5 billion people in India, one third is malnourished. The major factors responsible are unawareness amongst masses about balanced diets; poverty; gender requirements; lack of sources of nutrition in a particular area (might be rural or urban); geographical prevalence of these nutrients in the environment etc.
Secondly bioavailability of essential nutrients is declining in the food products due to many reasons such as global warming, urbanisation, lack of good agricultural practices etc. Lack of nutrients in the soil and water also results in reduction of essential nutrients in the agri-produce and ultimately affects the consumers leading to deficiency diseases due to non-availability of essential nutrients.
India alone has more undernourished people (204 million) than all of the sub-Saharan Africa combined. India has over 34% of the world’s total illiterate population while only 66% of the total population of our country is literate out of which 76% are men and 24% are women. Illiteracy leads to lack of awareness on the important factor of life, i.e. “health.” About 15.3% of the population does not survive to the age of 40 and this is because of lack of awareness of nutrition and health treatment plans.
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