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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024

 

MUMBAI – In its initiative to combat micronutrient deficiencies with fortified rice, the government has installed blending equipment with a capacity of 22.3 million tonne fortified rice per month in 21,000 operational rice mills out of 30,000 mills, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a release Thursday. 

 

 

Fortification of rice is a globally recognised practice and aligns with the guidelines of the World Health Organization, according to the release. 

 

Rice fortification started in India in 2019 as a pilot programme and has since been scaled up in a three-phase manner. A large community study in India, involving over 8,000 participants from tribal areas, showed that nearly two-thirds of patients with sickle cell disease were iron deficient. After the distribution of large-scale fortified rice in Jharkhand and Maharashtra--with more than 264,000 beneficiaries in each state--no adverse health outcomes related to iron overload have been reported, the release said. 

 

The Union Cabinet has allocated INR 170.82 billion to continue supplying fortified rice under various welfare schemes, including the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, from July 2024 to December 2028. The programme is meant to benefit 800 million Indians and reduce the incidence of anaemia, stunting of growth, and micronutrient deficiency among vulnerable sections of the population. Rice fortification involves the addition of rice kernels enriched with micronutrients--iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12--to regular custom-milled rice as per standards prescribed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

 

Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, 52 million tonnes of fortified rice is to be procured annually, the release said. There are currently 1,023 fortified rice kernel manufacturers across the country with an annual production capacity of 11 million tonnes, which exceeds the 5.2 million tonnes required for the programme, the release said. Additionally, there are 232 premix suppliers with a capacity of 7.5 million tonnes per year, far surpassing the 10,400 tonnes needed according to the programme.

 

The government established a working group in 2023 to assess the safety of iron-fortified rice for people with haemoglobinopathies, and its report concluded that current evidence does not support any safety concerns for such individuals. The committee recommended removing the health advisory, which the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India accepted. The advisory was officially removed in July 2024. 

 

Fortified rice packaging in India was initially required to carry a health advisory for individuals with thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia, as per the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2018, the release said. End

 

Reported by Shreya Shetty

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

 

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