Let’s leverage food fortification for healthy outcomesToday, nearly half of children born in urban and a quarter of those born in rural Kenya are likely to suffer brain and spinal cord defects due to folate (Vitamin B9) deficiency. Food fortification in Kenya dates back to 1970s with iodization of salt which led to decline in prevalence of goitre. Despite implementation of the national fortification programme in Kenya, there have been various challenges. At the consumer level, low levels of knowledge and awareness on fortification was reported. To strengthen the food fortification programme, JKUAT and the Ministry of Health, have been implementing the European Union funded project “Strengthening the Kenya National Food Fortification Program.” The project aims at strengthening governance and the legal structures, scaling up fortification beyond large scale millers, to include medium and small scale millers, improving and introducing new fortification technologies, raising consumer awareness on benefits of consuming fortified food and improving monitoring and evaluation of Kenya food fortification programme.

Source: Standard Digital April 27, 2019 21:00 UTC