Background WHEAT FLOUR FORTIFICATION

Country Investment Plan for Food Fortification in Indonesia xxxiv

CHAPTER 4 WHEAT FLOUR FORTIFICATION

4.1 Background

The high prevalence of Indonesian population’s anemia strives for government and all of people hand in hand to eliminate such serious problem. The interventions of micronutrient deficiencies in Indonesia are still highly depending on micronutrient supplementation. However, in the area where the primarily health care staff or the village-integrated post Posyandu is limited, the distribution of micronutrient supplement to the target population becomes a problem. In overseas, fortifying common foods with micronutrients has proved one of the most sustainable and cost-effectiveness strategies for delivering key micronutrients to large populations. For eliminating anemia, this experience is being implemented in Indonesia, i.e. by fortification on wheat flour with iron, zinc, vitamin B1 and B2, and folic acid since 2001. The fortificant is supported by CIDA through UNICEF for two years. In Indonesia, wheat flour is considered as an effective food to be fortified for several reasons: 1 the most popular staple food next to rice, about 75 of population consume wheat flour product with the average intake about 40capday, 2 easy to monitor: only 5 flour mills, 3 technically feasible, 4 relatively low cost of fortification, 5 minimal effect on quality. However, the implementation of wheat flour fortification still needs to be strengthened by many supporting aspects to achieve target of vulnerable groups. Since the policy regulation on mandatory wheat flour fortification is not properly implemented in term of monitoring and law enforcement for imported wheat flour, and the price of imported wheat flour is cheaper than the fortified one, the subsidy for fortificant need to be continued for the next 3 years. At the same time, the industry has to spend much money for the social marketing cost to increase awareness off consumer on the benefit of fortified wheat flour. To succeed elimination of micronutrient problem, the existed wheat flour fortification implementation needs to be strengthened by several aspects, such as: Country Investment Plan for Food Fortification in Indonesia xxxv management, legislation, research, technology, social marketing, and monitoring- evaluation.

4.2 Objective