New Delhi: To battle the prevalence of anaemia in India, the Narendra Modi government has started the process of making fortification of rice mandatory in the country.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India – the country’s apex food regulator under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – is working on a proposal to make fortification mandatory for rice in the next three years.
“We have started working on the plan and inter-ministerial discussions are going on. We have estimated that the cost of fortified rice will go up by 60-70 paise per kg. In total, the cost incurred by the government will be Rs 2,500 crore per fiscal year for distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal schemes and through the Public Distribution System, as per internal estimates,” a senior official from the FSSAI told ThePrint.
The central government’s plans to make fortification of rice mandatory aligns with Prime Minister Modi’s endorsement of fortified food to address micronutrient deficiency, during his address on World Food Day Thursday.
In 2019, Modi government had also approved the Centrally Sponsored Pilot Scheme on ‘Fortification of Rice and its Distribution under Public Distribution System’ which was approved for a period of three years beginning 2019-20 and focuses on 15 districts.
The World Health Organization also recommends fortification of rice with iron, vitamins and folic acid as a public health strategy to improve the iron levels of populations, in settings where rice is a staple food.
FSSAI has been pushing for fortification since 2018 when they launched a new ‘+F’ label for fortified foods and had set standards for fortification in five categories of staples including wheat flour, rice, milk and edible oil and double fortified salt.
According to the government’s plan, rice will be extruded and then shaped into structures that resemble rice grains.
The process of extrusion involves reforming rice flour into a precooked product that can be shaped to resemble a rice grain.