Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot; title=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 10 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 11 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 12 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 13 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 14 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 15 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 16 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 17 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 18 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 60324
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot; title=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf" title="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/" title="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot; title=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 10 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 11 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 12 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 13 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 14 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 15 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 16 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 17 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 18 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 60324
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot; title=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf" title="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/" title="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67fa7c3e99f61-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot; title=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 60324,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 10 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 11 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 12 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 13 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 14 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 15 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 16 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 17 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 18 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 60324
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;-GaonConnection.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Indian government is considering &amp;lsquo;mandatory&amp;rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &amp;lsquo;a blanket approach&amp;rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf&quot;&gt;a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra&lt;/a&gt;, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &amp;hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&amp;rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &amp;ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &amp;lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The country is also considering &amp;lsquo;compulsory&amp;rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Fortification can lead to toxicity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &amp;ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&amp;rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&amp;rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:justify&quot;&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot; title=&quot;https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf" title="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/" title="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 60324,
		'title' => 'Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI',
		'subheading' => null,
		'description' => '<p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>
',
		'credit_writer' => 'GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai',
		'meta_title' => '',
		'meta_keywords' => '',
		'meta_description' => '',
		'noindex' => (int) 1,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => null,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 60324,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D',
	'metaDesc' => '-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...',
	'disp' => '<p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf" title="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/" title="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 60324,
	'title' => 'Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI',
	'subheading' => null,
	'description' => '<p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p>

<p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>
',
	'credit_writer' => 'GaonConnection.com, 2 August, 2021, https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'stop-compulsory-food-fortification-health-activists-write-to-fssai',
	'meta_title' => '',
	'meta_keywords' => '',
	'meta_description' => '',
	'noindex' => (int) 1,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => null,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 6 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 7 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 8 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 9 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 10 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 11 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 12 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 13 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 14 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 15 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 16 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 17 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 18 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 60324
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI'
$metaKeywords = 'Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,chemical fortification,dietary diversity,Folic Acid,Food Safety and Standards Authority of India,Fortification,fortification of edible oil,fortification of edible oil and milk,fortification of food and edible oils,fortification of milk,FSSAI,Iron,Kisan Swaraj,Protein intake,Rice fortification,Toxicity,Vitamin A,Vitamin B12,Vitamin D'
$metaDesc = '-GaonConnection.com

The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.

At least 170 people and organisations,...'
$disp = '<p style="text-align:justify">-GaonConnection.com</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>The Indian government is considering &lsquo;mandatory&rsquo; food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision &lsquo;a blanket approach&rsquo; to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here.</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written <a href="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf" title="https://im4change.org/upload/files/ASHAs%20letter%20to%20FFRC%20on%20mandatory%20fortification%20Aug%202021.pdf">a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra</a>, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well &hellip; this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,&rdquo; reads the letter dated August 2.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: &ldquo;It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D &lsquo;so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health&rsquo;.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The country is also considering &lsquo;compulsory&rsquo; fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country.</p><p style="text-align:justify">However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health.</p><p style="text-align:justify"><em>Fortification can lead to toxicity&rsquo;</em></p><p style="text-align:justify">In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and &ldquo;it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.&rdquo;</p><p style="text-align:justify">Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India&rsquo;s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say.</p><p style="text-align:justify">&ldquo;Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,&rdquo; Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement.</p><p style="text-align:justify">Please <a href="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/" title="https://en.gaonconnection.com/food-fortification-health-nutrition-fssai-malnutrition-anaemia-40126/">click here</a> to read more.&nbsp;</p>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

Stop compulsory food fortification: Health activists write to FSSAI

-GaonConnection.com The Indian government is considering ‘mandatory’ food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision ‘a blanket approach’ to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here. At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The letter urges the department to scrap its decision to mandate synthetic fortification of foods such as rice with iron. “Fortification with one or two chemicals to address one nutrient deficiency will be limited by another nutrient deficiency. For e.g. haemoglobin synthesis requires not just iron but good quality proteins and many other micronutrients as well … this proposal for mandatory fortification citing RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances] for micronutrients while not taking into account the shortfall in macro nutrients of the population, is specious,” reads the letter dated August 2. Debal Deb, ecologist and traditional rice conservator, mentioned in the letter: “It is ridiculous (sic) that the government is promoting polished rice, which has lost a lot of its nutrition on the one hand, and talks about chemical fortification on the other hand.” In India, fortification has been made mandatory for some micronutrients. Last year, FSSAI considered it mandatory to fortify edible oil with vitamin A and D ‘so that people of India can enjoy better immunity with good health’. The country is also considering ‘compulsory’ fortification of rice with Vitamin B12, Iron, and Folic Acid from 2024 to address malnutrition and anaemia crisis in the country. The letter dated August 2 also highlighted that since April, the government has also started distributing fortified rice through the mid-day meal scheme and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programme citing widespread nutritional deficiencies. The central government has also initiated a three-year pilot scheme on rice fortification and supply via public distribution (PDS) in 15 districts across the country. However, experts state that the chemical or synthetic food fortification is detrimental to health. Fortification can lead to toxicity’ In the letter, the signatories including Right to Food Campaign, a non-profit working for food rights, and the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an informal network working to strengthen food diversity and nutrition, pointed out that the mandatory fortification is detrimental to health and “it would bring socio-economic impacts such as market shifts in favor of large corporations, loss of livelihoods for small and informal players, monocultures in diets and reliance on packaged foods.” Experts also pointed out that in undernourished populations such as India’s, the key problem is protein inadequacy as a result of monotonous cereal-based diets along with low consumption of vegetables and animal source foods such as meat, poultry, eggs, and fish. The fortification can lead to toxicity, including gut inflammation, they say. “Evidence supporting fortification is inconclusive and certainly not adequate before major national policies are rolled out,” Veena Shatrugna, former Deputy Director of National Institute of Nutrition, was quoted as saying in the press statement. Please click here to read more.