Fortified Rice- global scenario

Indian Prime Minister announced nutrient fortified rice through under welfare schemes like public distribution system and mid-day-meal scheme.

Rice fortification is currently compulsory in six countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and the Philippines. In USA FDA has not issued any mandatory standards for manufacture and follows labelling as standard. Manufacturers need to identify versions of food products that are enriched and those that are not.

WHO Guidelines

Fortification of rice with iron is recommended as a public

health strategy to improve the iron status of populations, in

settings where rice is a staple food. Fortification of rice with

vitamin A may be used as a public health strategy to improve

the iron status and vitamin A nutrition of 

populations. Fortification of rice with folic acid may be used as 

a public health strategy to improve the folate nutritional status 

of populations.

Are the nutrients in fortifed rice retained after preparation and

cooking? 

When produced using extrusion or rinse-resistant coating

technologies, fortifed rice will retain nutrients through various

preparation and cooking conditions, including washing and

cooking in excessive water that is later discarded. The

micronutrients in the fortifed kernels produced with extrusion 

technology are evenly  distributed throughout the kernels. 

Therefore, the nutrients are  adequately sealed and 

adequately retained through preparation and  cooking. 

However, when fortifed rice is produced using dusting or

coating that is not rinse-resistant, nutrients will be lost if the 

rice is  washed prior to cooking. There is ongoing additional 

research in this  area to further identify potential diferences in 

nutrient retention  between diferent rice preparation and 

cooking methods and  fortifcation technologies.

Operational Guidelines-India.

Extrusion is the preferred technology for rice fortification

because of the stability of micronutrients in the rice kernels

across processing, storage, washing, cooking, and in view of

cost considerations. Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) produced

using extrusion technology are made with rice flour and

micronutrients such as iron, folic acid, Vitamin B12 as

mandatory and zinc, vitamin A, thiamine (vitamin B1 ),

riboflavin (vitamin B2 ), niacin (vitamin B3 ), and pyridoxine

(vitamin B6 ) as optional micronutrients.

Best Engineering Technologies is one of the manufacturers of

Fortified Rice. The firm is a supplier of Herbal plants, 

Essential oil plants, Food processing plants, spice powder 

plants, cashew nut processing plants etc.