Malnutrition (hidden hunger) which means deficiencies of vitamins and minerals poses severe health and economic threat to Nigeria. It remains one of the leading causes of mortality among children under five and pregnant and nursing mothers in Nigeria.
As part of critical knowledge generation to inform policy development and stakeholder alignment on the prospects for rice fortification in Nigeria, a detailed landscape analysis of Nigeria's rice sector was undertaken along with a technical feasibility assessment of the opportunities and viability of rice fortification in Nigeria.
Today, more than 125 countries have mandatory food fortification programmes. Food fortification requires a "premix" – a mixture of vitamins and minerals – that can then be added to various staple products.
Motivated by the need for such information for its own programmes, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) developed the Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) in 2013 for carrying out coverage assessments of fortification programmes.
Micronutrient deficiencies are a public health challenge in Bangladesh. Many children, women, and vulnerable populations are not getting the nutrients they need for proper brain development, immunity, and physical and mental health. Together with diversified diets, large scale food fortification has the potential to make a significant impact on micronutrient deficiency in Bangladesh.
Accelerated digitalization is one of the most significant growth engines for developing nations. With technology driving increased sales and profits globally, a digital quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) system for food fortification in Bangladesh will open THREE paths to greater efficiency and enhanced financial performance for fortified food producers.
Monitoring the quality of fortified foods has traditionally been a manual, time-consuming process, which relies primarily on sporadic testing once products have reached the market. A partnership of international specialists and experts is working with Bangladesh’s food producers to develop a platform of sensors and software, enabling oversight of the production process and product quality.
Nigeria suffers from extreme levels of micronutrient deficiencies affecting the health, death rates, brain and physical development of the majority of Nigerians.To assess this existing evidence, and the remaining data gaps, this State of the Nation review provides a multi-sectoral analysis of all the available data from the last 10 years, from 2012 to 2021.
Too many people across Bangladesh are living with zinc deficiency. One proven and effective way to tackle this is through scaling up production and consumption of rice biofortified with zinc.
With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAIN is leading implementation of a pilot programme to develop a digitized system to ensure staple foods are fortified with the right levels of essential vitamins and minerals to support good health and nutrition. The system will also track the fortified foods to ensure they are reaching Nigerian consumers efficiently.
