Post No. 6. What is food fortification?
Fortification involves the intentional addition of vitamins and minerals to foods that are eaten on a regular basis even if they would not have originally been in the food. For some foods either by law (white bread) or a voluntary approach (breakfast cereals) are fortified to support the nutritional health of the whole population.
Processed foods can have nutrients added to them to restore what was lost during processing (restoration); or where a processed food is designed to be similar to another food and does not normally contain that vitamin or mineral (substitution) e.g. calcium added to alternative plant based dairy substitute products where they do not naturally contain calcium e.g. soya based drinks [1].
Voluntary fortification of fat spreads includes the addition of vitamins A and D. Fortification is really important with foods produced specifically for those on a vegan or vegetarian diet. For example, the British Dietetic Association explain that vitamin B12 is not available from plants and a lack of vitamin B12 can cause fatigue, anaemia and affect the nervous system. [2] There are supplements that contain vitamin B12 or vitamin B12 fortified foods (check the label).
Globally nutrient deficiency is a real problem especially in low income communities. If you would like to take this topic further - a really good 2021 in-depth review is by Olson and others makes interesting reading [3].
In the next post we will talk about bioavailability - nutrients may be in a food but are they available when we eat them?
- https://archive.nutrition.org.uk/nutritionscience/foodfacts/fortification.html
- https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/vegetarian-vegan-plant-based-diet.html
- https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041118
Comments
Post a Comment