What Is It?

Food fortification is primarily the addition of one or more essential nutrients (for example, iron, vitamin A, folic acid, iodine) to a food, whether or not it is normally contained in the food, for the purpose of preventing or correcting a demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the population or specific population groups. It is a safe, effective way to improve public health and has been used around the world since the 1920s. Commonly fortified foods include staple products such as salt, maize flour, wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil and rice.