The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our economies, health and food systems and threatens to deepen the global crisis of malnutrition. Food fortification strategies are an essential part of the nutrition safety net during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond – helping to restore access to healthy diet when the availability of fresh produce and animal-source foods is limited.
Lack of diversity in many people’s diets means that more than two billion people globally are deficient in at least one micronutrient, which has a transversal impact on individuals, communities, and nations. It is within this context that GAIN’s Large Scale Food Fortification (LSFF) portfolio of projects, which operate both at national and global levels, has been deployed, with the aim of increasing micronutrient intakes through the addition of bioavailable micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) to commonly consumed foods.
This study responds to earlier findings of suboptimal compliance with mandatory fortification of edible oil in Bangladesh. We aim to explain the root causes of poor compliance and to provide recommendations to strengthen the national fortification programme in Bangladesh and other similar contexts.
Biofortification of staple crops has the potential to increase nutrient intakes and improve health outcomes. Despite program data on the number of farming households reached with and growing biofortified crops, information on the coverage of biofortified foods in the general population is often lacking. Such information is needed to ascertain potential for impact and identify bottlenecks to parts of the impact pathway.
Dietary intake data are required to design, monitor, and evaluate nutrition programmes and policies; however, current dietary assessment methods are complex, time consuming, and costly. Recently, GAIN developed a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQ-FFQ) that can be used in coverage surveys to estimate the amount of fortified and biofortified foods consumed and their contributions to nutrient intakes.
Food fortification is implemented to increase intakes of specific nutrients in the diet, but contributions of fortified foods to nutrient intakes are rarely quantified.
The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming our world. We are seeing rapid changes in areas such as health care delivery, food security, agriculture, and international aid prioritization. In addition to the immediate impact to health and society, the COVID-19 pandemic may result in significant short- and long-term disruptions to food systems.
Information on the coverage and consumption of biofortified foods is critical to assess the performance and potential for impact of programmes. The objective of this study was to develop and test methods for assessing the coverage and consumption of biofortified foods and their contribution to nutrient intakes of children and women of reproductive age.
We are pleased to announce 8 through 13 November, 2020 as the new dates for the Micronutrient Forum 5th Global Conference , 8 and 9 November 2020 as the new dates for the Second Global Summit on Food Fortification in Bangkok, Thailand.
Large-scale food fortification (LSFF) is a cost-effective intervention that is widely implemented, but there is scope to further increase its potential. To identify gaps and opportunities, we first accessed the Global Fortification Data Exchange (GFDx) to identify countries that could benefit from new fortification programs.
