Fortification of Rice

Why in NEWS ?

• 15 States have been identified for implementing Centrally Sponsored Pilot Scheme on Fortification of Rice & its distribution through Public Distribution System.

About

• To initiate the process of taking the country towards nutritional security, Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) has been running a “Centrally Sponsored Pilot Scheme on Fortification of Rice & its distribution through Public Distribution System”.
• The Pilot Scheme has been approved for a period of three years beginning 2019- 2020 with a total budget outlay of Rs.174.6 Crore.
• Fifteen State Governments have identified their respective districts (1 district per state) for implementing the Pilot Scheme. Already 5 states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh have started the distribution of fortified rice in their respective identified districts.
• In this connection, the Union Minister for Food & Consumer Affairs, Railways, Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal, laid the emphasis on scaling up of the distribution of fortified rice in the country.
• FCI has been asked to come up with a comprehensive plan for procurement and distribution of fortified rice in all the Districts of the country under Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) & Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme from 2021-2022.
• Special focus would be placed on supplying fortified rice to the 112 specially identified Aspirational Districts of the country.
• The supply chain and other logistic requirements to scale up the scheme of "Rice fortification and its distribution" to cover the Integrated Child Development Scheme /Mid Day Meal scheme in Aspirational districts in the country at the first instance was discussed.

Food Fortification

• It is the process of adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) to food.
• Fortification is the addition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc, Vitamin A & D to staple foods such as rice, milk and salt to improve their nutritional content. These nutrients may or may not have been originally present in the food before processing.
• Food fortification is a proven and effective strategy to meet the nutritional needs of a large number of people across various sections of the society.
• Fortified foods can help fill the gaps, in need of speedy remedial nutrition. It prevents and eliminates the nutritional deficiencies.
• India’s National Nutritional strategy, 2017, had listed food fortification as one of the interventions to address anaemia, vitamin A and iodine deficiencies apart from supplementation and dietary diversification.
• Malnutrition is a prominent issue in India — 38% of children under five years are stunted i.e. too short for their age, 36% are underweight and 21% are wasted i.e. too thin for their height, which is a sign of acute under-nutrition.
• 59% women and 53% children are anaemic.
• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) made standards for fortification in the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018, for five staples — wheat, rice, milk, oil and salt.
• The standards are given for wheat and rice fortification with iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12, the deficiency of which cause anaemia. Besides, other B vitamins are also added.
• Standards are provided for oil and milk fortification with vitamin A and vitamin D, the deficiency of which cause night blindness and rickets respectively; and salt fortification with iron along with iodine to prevent goitre.
• The food companies who wish to add micronutrients to these staples sold in the packages will also have to follow the standards set by FSSAI. If the product is fortified according to the standards, the package will carry an F+ label.
• The Union Ministries of Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution have mandated the distribution of fortified wheat flour, rice, oil and double fortified salt in their schemes — Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meal (MDM) and Public Distribution System (PDS) respectively.
• Some of the important features of Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018 are as follows:
  a. It prescribes the standards of addition of micronutrients for the purpose of food fortification.
  b. The manufacturers of the fortified food are required to provide a quality assurance undertaking.
  c. Packaging and labelling of the fortified food must state the food fortificant added, logo and the tagline "Sampoorna Poshan Swasth Jeevan".
  d. It should be in compliance to the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011.

The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) Scheme

• It is providing for supplementary nutrition, immunization and pre-school education to the children is a popular flagship programme of the government.
• Launched in 1975, it is one of the world’s largest programmes providing for an integrated package of services for the holistic development of the child.
• ICDS is a centrally sponsored scheme implemented by state governments and union territories. The scheme is universal covering all the districts of the country.
• The Scheme has been renamed as Anganwadi Services.

Objectives

• To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
• To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
• To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
• To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
• To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

Beneficiaries

1. Children in the age group of 0-6 years
2. Pregnant women and
3. Lactating mothers

Mid Day Meal Scheme

• The MDM Scheme comes under the Ministry of HRD.
• It was launched in the year 1995 as a centrally sponsored scheme.
• The scheme provides that every child within the age group of six to fourteen years studying in classes I to VIII who enrolls and attends the school, shall be provided hot cooked meal having nutritional standards of 450 calories and 12 gm of protein for primary (I- V class) and 700 calories and 20 gm protein for upper primary (VI-VIII class), free of charge every day except on school holidays.
• The scheme covers all government and government aided schools and also Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

Objectives

• To enhance the enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improve nutritional levels among school going children studying in Classes I to VIII of Government, Government - aided schools, Special Training centres (STC) and Madarasas and Maktabs supported under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.