Fortified foods delivering great dividends in China

Food & Drink Weekly, Sept 27, 2004

Officials overseeing a program to bring missing vitamins and minerals to children in China are reporting a significant swing in disease eradication and even an improvement in IQs as a result. The Chinese Health Ministry and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) have undertaken a massive drive to reduce the damage done by vitamin and mineral deficiency. UNICEF recently reported on efforts to reach over 90 percent of China's 1.3 billion population with iodized salt, protecting a total of 133 million infants from brain damage due to iodine deficiency over the last ten years.

In 2002 alone, 14 million newborns benefited from this extra iodine in their mothers' diets, safeguarding them from brain damage and raising their IQ by 10 to 15 points. "If these achievements on iodine are sustained, China's economy is expected to swell by $25 billion over the next ten years thanks to a more productive workforce," says UNICEF.

Food fortification is an internationally recognized means of bringing vitamins and minerals to the majority of a country's population. In China, UNICEF, the Global Alliance for Improving Nutrition and the Asian Development Bank have been working with the government and private food companies to promote the fortification of staple foods like flour, soy sauce and salt with iodine, iron and other vitamins and minerals.

UNICEF and the Chinese Ministry of Health note that the cost of reducing vitamin and mineral deficiency is only a couple of cents per person per year, while the potential economic benefits in China could be as high as $86 billion over the next ten years. To realize this potential will take the combined efforts of national and provincial governments, international agencies, private sector food companies, the media and civil society, according to the report.