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NIFTEM Partners With GAIN, Hexagon Nutrition To Eradicate Malnutrition In India

NIFTEM Partners With GAIN, Hexagon Nutrition To Eradicate Malnutrition In India
About 26% of India’s population is considered food-insecure.

The aim is to set up a Centre of Excellence for Food Fortification at NIFTEM to spearhead a food fortification drive to fight malnutrition in the country.

Written by Longjam Dineshwori |Updated : July 30, 2021 8:01 PM IST

Malnutrition is a persisting issue in India and continues to be a major challenge for the country. According to a UNICEF report published in 2019, malnutrition caused 69% of deaths of children under the age of five in India. Further, it said that every second child in that age group is affected by some form of malnutrition. Making available fortified staples adequately and appropriately to all is what we need now to eradicate malnutrition in the country.

To this end, National Institute of Food Technology & Entrepreneurship Management (NIFTEM), an institute of national importance under the aegis of Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Govt. of India has joined hands with GAIN, an international development sector partner and Hexagon Nutrition, a leading food and nutraceutical company. Together, they will be setting up a Centre of Excellence for Food Fortification at NIFTEM to spearhead a food fortification drive aimed at eradicating malnutrition.

"Despite substantial strides in food grain production, about 26% of India's population is considered food-insecure, and almost 50% of the population suffers from deficiencies of one or more micronutrients, i.e. of vitamins and minerals. The Centre of Excellence will help build healthier and more productive societies, by making available adequately and appropriately fortified staples, to all", states a joint statement issued by NIFTEM, GAIN and Hexagon Nutrition.

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For the establishment of the Centre of Excellence for Food Fortification, NIFTEM has set up a Joint Technical Advisory Committee (JTAC) that includes representatives from FSSAI, Govt. of India's Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Academia, Development sector, UN agencies, etc.

Making Universal Food Fortification a reality

At the first meeting of the JTAC held recently, Arun Om Lal, Sr. Vice President, Hexagon Nutrition informed the Committee of its commitment to augment infrastructure technical capacity for fortification, by providing appropriate financial support to set up demonstration units and technical training to the NIFTEM staff, as its collaborators.

Deepti Gulati from GAIN shared that GAIN would help build a cadre of master trainers at NIFTEM and provide support to design the curriculum for structured training courses, share training modules, and training materials to ensure high-quality training.

Dr. J S Rana, Registrar, NIFTEM, added that NIFTEM would augment the Centre of Excellence to offer customized courses for faculty and students of various food & technology institutes, professionals from food processing industries as well as officials from State regulatory such as the FDA.

The Committee unanimously agreed on setting-up of Centre of Excellence for providing hands-on training to all the stakeholders on fortification of milk, wheat flour, and edible oil.

Dr. Pradeep Saxena, representing Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Anita Makhijani, representing the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), recommended enhancing the scope of the Centre of Excellence to include training of industry on fortification of rice and double fortified salt.

Their suggestion was backed by Dr. R Sankar, Program Director - Nutrition, TATA Trusts, Vivek Arora, Principal Lead FFRC, FSSAI, Rohini Saran, PATH, and Sakshi Jain NI.

Acknowledging that the quality of premixes used for fortification is most critical, NIFTEM Vice-Chancellor Dr. Chindi Vasudevappa, announced that NIFTEM will also undertake "Accreditation of premix suppliers" so that staples are appropriately fortified, using quality-assured premixes, in line with FSSAI standards and guidelines.

He added that presently, Food Fortification is an "Unfinished agenda" but this NIFTEM, GAIN, and Hexagon-Nutrition partnerships will provide the much-needed momentum to make Universal Food Fortification a reality, through Centre of Excellence for Food Fortification, the unique learning and skill-building platform.