ON FOOD fORTI - DOH Central Library - Department of Health

FVRice: WHAT IS IT?
FVRice is ordinary rice tha t has beenfortified
with iron by adding a premix
containing enough iron to satisfy a large
requirement of individuals. FVRice-iron
contains 3 mg iron per 100 g raw rice.
An adult man, for example, taking the
usual amount of rice he eats in a day,
will satisfy more than 100% of his iron
requirement. An adult woman would.
satisfy about40%of her iron requirement,
while a school child would satisfy 2/3
of his/her requirement. These amounts
should be enough considering that
ordinarily, individuals are already taking
in about 2/3 of their iron allowance from
their diet.
To make FVRice-iron, the Premix is
first prepared by coating ordinary rice
with a coatingsolution containingferrous
sulfate, drying and then packaging the
product. To use the Premix, one part
of it is mixed either in the home or in
the mill with 199 parts of ordinary rice
to make iron enriched rice, which is then
ready for cookingandconsumption. When
mixed this way, one could hardly detect
.the premix grains in the mixture unless
the premix grains are colored, which is
precisely what some retailers want to be
able to distinguish enriched rice from
ordinary rice.
The resulting fortified rice does not
changein taste or odorevenaftercooking.
Ifthe premixiscolored (green), the cooked
A Report on Food Fortification 25
rice has a very faint greenish color, but
this has beer. found notto be disagreeable..
The addition of the premix of course
imparts additional cost to the consumer.
At current prices, it entails an additional
P 0.60- P 0.75per kilo ofrice - an addition
of about 5% to the cost of rice.
MANUFACTURE OF PREMIX
Basically,the process of manufacture
of the Premix is very simple. It consists
of preparing the coating solution
containing the required amount of iron
(ferrous sulfate), pouring or spraying this
on a measured amount of ordinary rice
while itisbeingmixed in a rotatingtumbler
or trombo( and then drying the coated
rice. The resulting premix is then packed
either in 5 gram polypropylene/
polyethylene sachets or bags. One can
do this manually over a hood, but in a
larger scale manufacture, we have come
out with a prototype spraying device that
safeguards the safety of the workers. The
prototype manufactured locally costs P
85,000.
Raw materials including fortificants
and packaging materials are locally
available (although imported).
SYSTEM OF USE OF PREMIX
There are two major schemes of using
the premix:
1) Mill enrichment where rmxmg of the
premix with ordinary rice is done at
the ricemill duringthe millingofpalay.