Fortified Biscuits

Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) to food. It may be a purely commercial choice to provide extra nutrients in a food, while other times it is a public health policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population.

While it is true that both fortification and enrichment refer to the addition of nutrients to food, the true definitions do slightly vary. As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), fortification refers to "the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, ie. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health," whereas enrichment is defined as "synonymous with fortification and refers to the addition of micronutrients to a food which are lost during processing."

Food fortification was identified as the second strategy of four by the WHO and FAO to begin decreasing the incidence of nutrient deficiencies at the global level.

High Energy Biscuits are high in protein and supplemented with a premix of vitamins and minerals. They are intended for general food distribution and school feeding. HEB's have a minimum of 24 months shelf life when stored up to 30°C. They come in package sizes of 50 grams, 75 grams, 100 grams or 250 grams biscuits.

In the current nutrition intervention, both high and low iron fortified biscuits led to a significant enhancement in the body weight and hemoglobin status of anemic people in rural setup. The nutrition intervention clearly highlights biscuits as an ideal fortification vehicle for addressing anemia.