BHOPAL: Micronutrient Initiative (MI), an international organisation headquartered in Ottawa (Canada) and working in over 70 countries is going to launch a massive Wheat Flour Fortification Programme on a pilot basis in the neighbouring district of Vidisha from next month. The programme will be launched in collaboration with the departments of food and civil supplies and health.
It aims at combating the wide prevalence of anaemia and the resultant high infant and maternal mortality rates. According to NFHS-4 (2015-16), almost 68.9 per cent children in 6-59 month age-group and 52.4 per cent women of 15-49 years in the state were anemic.
Since wheat is the staple food of the state, MI has chosen the route of fortifying wheat flour to arrest anaemia. Fortification, in layman’s terms, means adding vitamins and minerals during the milling process of wheat so that the products made from the flour are more nutritious. Wheat flour will be fortified with calcium, iron, folic acid and vitamin B-12. Fortification of wheat flour is considered one of the most effective, simple and inexpensive strategies for supplying vitamins and minerals to large segments of the population without requiring change in food habits or dietary pattern or measures to address the problem of compliance. The pre-mix does not alter the colour, taste or smell of the cooked food.
Pre-blend fortification sachets will be distributed to ration card holders along with wheat from PDS shops at the rate of one sachet for every four kgs of wheat. All the ‘chakkis’ in the district will be mapped and training will be provided to the chakki owners on use of the pre-blend.
MI will procure and donate pre-blend sachets and the department of food and civil supplies will manage their distribution to the PDS shops in proportion to the wheat sold through them. The food officers will collect samples of wheat flour from chakkis and homes and they will be analysed for the presence of the nutrients included in the sachet. Every quarter, 10 samples will be sent to state and NABL-accredited labs for verification of the quality.
District food officer Mohan Maru told The Free Press Journal, “Presently, the process of training of PDS shop owners, warehouse owners and frontline health workers are on. The programme will be launched from next month.”
