Micronutrient fortification of wheat flour: Recent development and strategies

Deficiencies of iron, zinc and vitamin A have been a focus of the governments and world organizations for decades and extensive efforts are being made to address this malnutrition. Being a popular and most common dietary staple of the population living in sub-continent and developing countries, wheat flour (WF) has gained a significant attention as a suitable vehicle for micronutrient fortification. Fortification of wheat flour has been established as an appropriate strategy to curtail micronutrient deficiencies especially in the developing economies. Extent of the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies, their consequences, selection of a suitable vehicle, choice of fortificants and their levels and storage stability, acceptability and bioavailability of iron and zinc fortified WF are the key points of discussion in the current review. This review further highlights multifaceted issues pertaining to the appropriateness and suitability of fortification over other intervention strategies, ecological needs and fortification success stories and advantages of simply adding fortificants to flour to meet nutritional requirements of vulnerable groups. The authors have attempted to encompass the subject matter based on their research endeavors made in this direction.