Fortified with iron, Canadian salt awaits poll verdict in UP

TORONTO: A professor in Canada is paying attention to the crucial assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. Not because of its political consequences, but because he developed the technology for double fortified salt (DFS) and nearly 6,000 tonnes of the product is to be distributed in the state once a new government is formed.

Professor Levente Diosady is an emeritus professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the University of Toronto. The DFS augments iodised salt with iron to counter anaemia. “The idea is that everybody eats salt and, thus, it’s an easy way to get the health status up,” he told HT.

While the idea is simple, the implementation was complex. Its genesis lies with Venkatesh Mannar, then a consultant with the UN (now an adjunct professor at University of Toronto) and who came from a long line of salt manufacturers in India. Mannar first approached Diosady in the early 1990s, but it has taken years for DFS to become viable.

The catch, Diosady explained, was that when iron comes in contact with iodine, the latter evaporates. “There were many, many iterations and testing,” he said.

THE TARGET IS WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE, THUS HAVING AN IMPACT ON BOTH MOTHER AND CHILD

The solution came by way of encapsulating iron into particles that matched salt.

In 2008, it was ready for a pilot project. The Tamil Nadu government introduced the twin micronutrient enriched salt into its school mid-day meal programme. The move was supported by Canada’s government. It was “very useful” in curing roughly a million children with anaemia, Diosady said. The programme in TN continues, and the UP venture will be the major large-scale rollout of DFS. Orders for the product were placed in January.

Diosady is doubling down on DFS, and is looking to add folic acid and vitamin B12 to make what may become quadruple fortified salt. The target, the professor said, is women of child-bearing age, thus having an impact on both mother and child.

“Having the whole package is designed to prevent problems during childbirth,” Diosady said, pointing out this version of salt is still over two years away.