52 universities join hands to produce high-value nutritional food

Islamabad : The Planning Commission of Pakistan had provided financial and technical assistance to 52 national universities in order to conduct research on the production of high-value and nutrient filled food to address the issue of stunted growth and malnutrition in the country.

The initiatives was aiming at to strengthen the government ‘’s commitment to address the issues of stunted growth and malnutrition challenges from the country and the universities were provided an amount of 5.2 million for engaging the experts to produce high value food, said an official of Planning Commission of Pakistan.

Talking to APP, he said that the Planning Commission in collaboration with its international development partners including Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme had also provided technical assistance and trained the staff of 250 flour mills on wheat fortifications in order to overcome the issues and challenges of malnutrition and stunted growth.

These mills were also provided micro-feeders to mix iron, folic acid and zinc in the flour wheat to provide nutrient filled food for children and women to overcome the malnutrition and stunted growth, said an official in the Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms.

Besides providing the micro-feeders, he said that special efforts were also made for the capacity building of staff of these mills and other government sector institutions to ensure the strict compliance of quality and standards of foods, he added.

So far, he said that about 100,000 tons of the wheat flour were fortified with iron, folic acid and zinc with the micro-feeders, besides the capacity building of governmental organization in order to maintain the standards as well as ensuring the provision of quality and nutrient filled food.

Under the initiative about 76 vegetable ghee and edible oil manufacturing mills in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were also provided pre-mix for mixing Vitamin D in the vegetable ghee and edible, he added.

He said that these mills had produced about 950,000 tons of edible oil and ghee, besides the capacity building of the workforce to produce nutrient filled ghee and oil for cementing the initiatives for human resource development and improving the human health in the country.

He further said that Planning Commission of Pakistan in collaboration with FAO would also launch ‘’Pakistan dietary guideline for better nutrient’’ by end of current month aimed at providing dietary characteristics for all age groups.

The guidelines have been finalized, covering two agro-ecological zones having information about 350 raw and cooked food items with 25 nutrition parameters to ensure strict quality control.