An Indian recipe to quell micronutrient malnutrition – Strategy of Food Fortification | 1st December 2022 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis

What's the article about?

• It explores the use of a food fortification strategy to combat micronutrient malnutrition among the Indian population.

Relevance:

• GS2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources;
• GS3: Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life;
• Prelims

Why does India need a food fortification strategy?

• Malnutrition exacerbates the magnitude of the public health crises we face, and is India’s most serious challenge and concern.
• As in National Family Health Survey-5 data, every second Indian woman is anaemic, every third child is stunted and malnourished, and every fifth child is wasted.
• According to an FAO Food Security Report for 2021, India ranks 101 out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2021, with a 15.3% undernourished population, the highest proportion of stunted children (30%), and wasted children (17.3%).
• The picture the Global Nutrition Report 2021 paints is cause for concern, noting that stunting among children in India is significantly higher than the Asian average of 21.8%.
• Since the 1920s, developed countries and high-income countries have successfully tackled the issue of malnutrition through food fortification.

Evidences in the favour of food fortification:

• Pilot Projects of GoI:
  • The rice programme and anaemia:
    • Pilot projects on the distribution of fortified rice have been taken up in select States, including Maharashtra (Gadchiroli district) as part of a targeted Public Distribution programme for the masses.
    • The programme has been a success in terms of preventing cases of anaemia — from 58.9% to 29.5% — within a span of two years, prompting the central government to declare the scaling up of the distribution of fortified rice, the major staple diet of 65% of the population, through the existing platform of social safety nets such as the PDS, ICDS and PM-POSHAN.
  • Noon meal scheme in Gujarat:
    • In Gujarat, an eight-month long study on multiple micronutrient fortified rice intervention for schoolchildren (six-12 years) in 2018-2019, as part of the Midday Meal Scheme, found increased haemoglobin concentration, 10% reduction in anaemia prevalence, and, more importantly, improved average cognitive scores (by 11.3%).
    • The health benefits accruing from food fortification have made 80 countries to frame laws for the fortification of cereal flour, and 130 countries with iodised salt, where 13 countries have mandated rice fortification.

Why tackling the issue of micronutrient malnutrition is the need of the hour?

• Iron deficiency anaemia is a major public health concern, because it is responsible for 3.6% of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs (years of life lost due to premature mortality and years lived with disability) according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• According to NITI Aayog (based on WHO meta-analysis on the impact of rice fortification), a rice fortification budget of around ₹2,800 crore per year can save 35% of the total or 16.6 million DALYs per year with no known risk of toxicity.

Way Forward:

• Food fortification, according to stalwarts of nutrition, is a cost-effective complementary strategy to address multiple micronutrient deficiencies.
• Thus, given its proven efficacy and cost-effectiveness, food fortification can help us in reducing micronutrient deficiencies and address overall health benefits.
• The intervention, carried out with precautions, is the key to the malnutrition issue which the nation continues to grapple with.