ON FOOD fORTI - DOH Central Library - Department of Health

On this occasion, I would like to talk
about our program on iron fortification
of chocolate powder. Clearly the objective
• of fortifying a chocolate powder or
chocolate. milk with iron is to provide
highlybioavailableironwithoutchanging
the color or flavor of the product. As
discussed with the folk leaders and -the
health department in Mexico, the concept
is for the chocolate powder to contribute
to the preventionofiron deficiencyanemia.
To accomplish this, the Procter &
Gamble developed a mini iron delivery
system called a nutri-iron. The approach
can be applied to any food' product
whether it is cereal or a beverageor spices.
The first step in iron fortification is
to identify'the product vehicle. The next
step is to develop a technology to put
iron into the food product to be fortified.
There are two critical points: one is the
vehicle has to be suitable, and has to be
consumed by the targetgroup. The second
one is: the iron to be added should be
compatible and at the same time
bioavailable. To be suitable means that,
the vehicle has to be consumed by the
target group, should be centrally
processed and served, and should not
affect the bioavailability of the nutrient
(iron) added.
Before we developed the iron
fortification technology, we did a habit
and practice study. About 50% of the
milk consumed in Mexico, is consumed
, A Report on Food Fortification 19
with a milk modifier, and only 16% of
the milk is consumed plain,so we thought
that chocomilk has a potential to' be a
vehicle for iron.. Mothers buy the milk
for two things: one is the flavor which
would make their children drink milk,
the second isthe nutrientdelivered. About
40% Of the consumers of the product are
children; about 30% are teenagers and
another 30% are women.
-_Let me explain a little bit more on
what bioavailability is and why it is
important. Basically, whenwe talk about
the iron contentoffood we'retalking about
quantity but quantity must have quality
to be of help, so bioavailability is that
fraction of the ingested iron that is
absorbed and the usefulness . of that iron
'
in various biological functions is the
quality of the, iron.
%ebioavailability of the iron varies
in different food groups, ironsources from
1% in rice to 20% from meat. We can
,classify' them into two groups: the iron
from plant foods are of poor quality
. whereas, the iron of animal foods are of
excellent quality. Of the iron compounds
commonly used for' fortification, the
United States Food ana Drug
Administration uses ferrous sulfate as
the standard because it is a good source