Milling Journal - Q4 2008 - (Page 26) FFI White Paper “Fortification Remains Wise Invesetment in Midst of Escalating Food Prices” In October, the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI) issued a White Paper titled “Fortification Remains Wise Investment in Midst of EscalEscalating Food Prices”. This article is based on some of the key points made in the White Paper—the complete paper is available at www.sph.emory.edu/wheatflour. Escalating food prices around the world have resulted in an unintended consequence: millions of people unable to pay the increased cost of foods—however small—must instead rely on regional diets lacking the essential micronutrients that we take for granted. The consequences are staggering. Poor families, who normally spend 60% of their meager income on food, often compensate by eating cheaper alternatives that all too often results in sickness, disease, and premature death. Fortification Fills Gap In Nutritional Needs When food is fortified with folic acid, for example, scientists have noticed an acute drop in severe birth defects. In Chile, following the start of mandatory fortification of wheat flour with folic acid in 2000, the prevalence of anencephaly decreased by 45%, and cases of spinal bifida dropped by nearly half. In the United States, the addition of folic acid to wheat flour—mandated in 1998—produced similar results. The Case for Fortification The Micronutrient Initiative and UNICEF, in a report issued in the spring of 2004, noted the state of vitamin and mineral deficiency in the world. The seminal work concluded that the lack of micronutrients in food was the most pressing public health concern of our time. The report, in part, reiterated what has been known for a long time, namely that micronutrient deficiency—the lack of key vitamins and minerals—causes widespread anemia, cretinism, and blindness affecting tens of millions of people. But the news of the last decade is even more sobering. Lower levels of vitamin and mineral deficiency, which exhibit no clinical symptoms, result in impaired intellectual development, compromise immune systems, promote birth defects, and consign as many as 2 billion people to lives troubled with physical and mental defects. Fortification Pays Long-Term Dividends The case in Chile clearly illustrates the effectiveness of flour enrichment and the cost/benefit ratio. There, the flour fortification program only needs to prevent two neural tube defects to recover the cost of the enriching flour for the entire county. The cost of rehabilitating each child affected with spinal bifida (from birth though age 18) is estimated at $120,000, while the cost of fortifying flour with Chart and map courtesy of Flour Fortification Institute 26 Fourth Quarter 2008 MILLING JOURNAL http://www.sph.emory.edu/wheatflour
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