Rice Fortification

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, accorded its approval for supply of fortified rice throughout the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman-PM POSHAN [erstwhile Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM)] and Other Welfare Schemes (OWS) of Government of India in all States and Union Territories (UTs) by 2024 in a phased manner.

The entire cost of rice fortification would be borne by the Govt. of India as part of food subsidy till its full implementation up to June, 2024.

The following three phases are envisaged for full implementation of the initiative:

Food Fortification: It is the practice of deliberately increasing the micronutrient content i.e., vitamins and minerals in a food so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.

Food fortification is a ‘scientifically proven’, ‘cost-effective’, ‘scalable’ and ‘sustainable’ global intervention that addresses the issue of micronutrient deficiencies

Rice fortification involves the addition of micronutrients to rice post-harvest to restore the micronutrients lost during processing and to enhance the level of vitamins and mineral by adding other vitamins and minerals not originally present in rice

Rice Fortification is a 2 step process – (1) Production of Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK)  (2) Blending of rice with FRK

The Food and Civil Supplies Department with support of World Food Programme has done several trainings across the state and have trained different stakeholders on Rice fortification scheme and have sensitize them to burst common myths and misconceptions.

These include training of State and district officials of Department of Food & Civil Supplies, Department of Elementary Education, Department of Women and Child Development, FCI officials and DM and food inspectors of HAFED and HWC. Also, 70% rice millers in the State have been trained and 50% FRK manufacturers have been sensitized on rice Fortification. A pool of master trainers has also been created for Department of Food & Civil Supplies, Department of Elementary Education, and Department of Women and Child Development. These master trainers will further train remaining district and block officials and create awareness among schools, AWCs and community. These trainings were conducted with technical support provided by World Food Programme.

Technical assistance support to the state department is provided by monthly supportive supervision visits to districts to monitor production, storage and distribution sites, on site capacity building & corrective action and sharing of findings at state and central level for further corrective actions.