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| Iron-fortified flour production gains pace |
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: The mandatory supply of iron-fortified wheat by World Food Program has accelerated. The number of flourmills producing fortified atta has reached 92 in past one year, 40 of them in NWFP.
Flour fortification with iron has suddenly picked up in Pakistan as the number of flourmills adding iron in flour has increased from 68 in 2008 to 160 particularly in NWFP where 40 mills were added after the Swat operation.
Iron (Fe) deficiency is a major cause of anaemia in children and pregnant women. According to UNICEF estimates, iron deficiency affects half of the developing world’s infants, undermines the health of 500 million women of reproductive age and leads to more than 60,000 childbirth deaths a year. Iron deficiency is also stated to be one of the major causes of high infant mortality rate in Pakistan. It also causes a range of other problems in millions of people, including impaired cognitive development in children, fatigue, maternal mortality and low productivity in the workplace.
As wheat flour is the staple food of majority in Pakistan it was the most suitable food for iron fortification. The wheat flour fortification program was initiated in 1997. Trials were conducted for various iron compounds to find out the efficacy and safe ratio of iron compound that could be added in flour.
In 2002 Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) provided $3 million to Pakistan to procure NaFeEDTA a substance containing bio available iron that could be mixed in flour. It leaves no taste when added to food and remains stable under storage and cooking conditions. It also prevents rancidity, while research into the product’s molecule has proved that compound is absorbed into the human body two to four times better than with other iron compounds.
The mills were required to buy the iron mixer from their own resources while NaFeEDTA was to be provided from the GAIN grant to the flourmills free of cost.
The selected mills were bound to supply the atta bags at normal atta rates.
Introduction of fortified flour was slow in Pakistan. Three years after grant only 50 flourmills in Pakistan started fortifying flour with iron. The process slowed down thereafter and only 18 more mills were added during 2004-2008. Pakistan was way behind the target of adding 150 flour mills in the fortification program by 2010. The speed of fortification however picked up after 2008 and 92 more mills have been added since then enabling the country to exceed the target a year ahead. GAIN acknowledged this achievement by awarding Flour Fortification Initiative Leadership award in Italy to the coordinator flour fortification in Pakistan Dr Bilal Aslam Soofi.
“Now fortified flour is available to 30 per cent of the urban population of Pakistan,” said Soofi. He said the iron compound grant provided by GAIN would expire next year. He said that at the award ceremony a request was made to GAIN to extend the grant for free supply of NaFeEDTA for another year. He said even if the grant is not provided it would add only Rs2 per 20 kg in the cost, which he said is affordable in view of the huge health benefits associated with it.
Fortification of flour with iron is mandatory in most of the developed countries. In Pakistan it is still optional. Nutritional experts have advised the government to make it mandatory by 2012 so that the menace of anaemia could be addressed.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
