These changes to our food systems could improve human and planetary health
On the recent World Food Day, the clarion call was clearer than ever: We must fix our food systems to improve human health, drive economic growth, and save the planet from environmental collapse. The challenges facing us are wide-ranging. The way the world produces and consumes food causes huge environmental impacts, and yet 3 billion people worldwide are unable to afford a healthy diet, and up to a third of the food we produce is wasted.
Bangladesh brings in landmark legislation to support salt iodisation
The Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh has just given the green light to the new Iodised Salt Act 2020 act aimed at improving the monitoring and efficacy of the country’s salt iodisation programme. The new Act will increase and incentivise compliance, as well as strengthen the ability of the regulatory authorities to enforce salt iodisation.
COVID-19 is making it harder for vulnerable people to access healthy food
- 07/10/2020
At every life stage, micronutrients are crucial to immune system function and resilience to infectious disease. This brief makes the case for large scale staple food fortification as a critically important tool to fight malnutrition in general, and even more so during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Boosting nutrition amidst a pandemic, food fortification emerges safe and cost efficient
As the COVID-19 pandemic shifts into its second phase, food fortification has never been so necessary in the fight against malnutrition, according to a call to action endorsed by Food Fortification Initiative, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Helen Keller International, Iodine Global Network, Nutrition International, the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
Affordable healthy diets for all: the role of food fortification in a time of pandemic
Online Webinar, Global
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.
Assessment of GAIN's Large Scale Food Fortification Portfolio
- 24/08/2020
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.
GAIN Working Paper Series 8 - Why do companies fortify? Drivers of compliance with edible oil fortification in Bangladesh
- 21/08/2020
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.
Assessing the Coverage of Biofortified Foods: Development and Testing of Methods and Indicators in Musanze, Rwanda
- 18/06/2020
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.
GAIN Working Paper Series 6 - Simplifying dietary assessment the nutrient specific semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire
- 24/06/2020
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.