To enhance the nutrition quality of the various food items, several measures tend to be imposed. Among them being; Fortification, Enrichment and Supplementation. This post will explicitly distinguish these common terms and their significance to diet improvement.
Programs targeted for either measure are in most contexts, endorsed through quality assurance, food regulations, and constant monitoring to attain anticipated effects on nutritional status.
- Enrichment -This involves adding nutrients to food items whose nutrients were lost or extracted during processing. Usually, a food item contains the particular nutrient being added.
- Fortification -Is the adding of nutrients, usually micro-nutrients, to a food that lacks those particular nutrients. It aims to reduce nutrition deficiencies and to meet proper nutritional status for most individuals. Unlike enrichment that already has the added nutrient; in fortification, the nutrient being added is usually absent in the food. Similar to food enrichment, food fortification targets large populations and only small concentrations of a nutrient are normally added. Both these programs are long-term interventions.
- Usually , fortification and enrichment are employed as per regulation to promote nutrient adequacy, and reduce nutrient deficiency cases amongst populations. Therefore, ordinary food products such as meat products, baked goods, breakfast cereals, spreads, infant formulas and foods, beverages etc are normally proposed for use.
- Supplementation– It is normally a short-term intervention targeted at correcting an issue i.e. particularly a nutrient deficiency rather than preventing it. It targets particular individuals who are already deficient in a certain nutrient. In contrast to food enrichment and fortification that aim to prevent the occurrence of deficiencies,, supplementation manages the deficiency . Supplementation programs target smaller population groups and they tend to be costly to implement. Foods targeted for supplementation are not necessarily staples. Supplementation programs are usually short-term interventions. They are usually periodic, in that they are halted once the concern is addressed.
Nutrition enhancement programs aim to achieve good nutrition status for various individuals. The are important regulations set aside to promote better nutrition outcomes.