• Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey virtually launched cooperative NAFED’s fortified rice bran oil and said this will help in reducing India’s imports of cooking oils.

• This rice bran oil will be marketed by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED). 

• Rice bran oil has multiple health benefits, including lowering cholesterol level due to its low trans-fat content and high mono unsaturated and poly unsaturated fat contents. It also acts as a booster and reduces the risk of cancer due to the high amount of Vitamin E it contains. 

• This oil is recommended by The American Heart Association and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the best substitutes for other edible oils. 

• Rice bran oil from NAFED will be fortified and it will be ensured that it will contain additional nutrients and vitamins. 

• According to the FSSAI, fortified oil can help a person fulfil 25-30 per cent of the recommended dietary intake for vitamins A and D.

• Recently, an MoU has been signed between NAFED and Food Corporation of India (FCI) for the production and marketing of fortified rice kernels. 

What is fortification?

• Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient — vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) — in food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.

• In other words, it is the addition of key vitamins and minerals such as Iron, Iodine, Zinc, Vitamins A & D to staple foods such as rice, wheat, oil, milk and salt to improve their nutritional content. 

• Rice fortification has the potential to help aid vulnerable populations that are currently not reached by wheat or maize flour fortification programmes.

• However, rice production is often done domestically or locally, which could make reaching all those in need with mass fortification programmes challenging.

• Rice can be fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to the rice that adheres to the grains or spraying on the surface of ordinary rice grains in several layers with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.

• Rice can also be extruded and shaped into partially pre-cooked grain-like structures resembling rice grains, which can then be blended with natural polished rice.

• The Copenhagen Consensus estimates that Re.1 spent on fortification results in benefits worth Rs 9 to the economy. 

• In October 2016, FSSAI operationalised the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016 for fortifying staples namely wheat flour and rice (with Iron, Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid), milk and edible oil (with Vitamins A and D) and double fortified salt (with Iodine and Iron) to reduce the high burden of micronutrient malnutrition in India. 

• The ‘+F’ logo has been notified to identify fortified foods.

• At present, all the major oil producers in the country are voluntarily fortifying at least one brand in their product portfolios.

What is the difference between fortification and biofortification?

• Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology. 

• Biofortification differs from conventional fortification. Biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during processing of the crops. 

What is NAFED?

• National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) is an apex organisation of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India. 

• It was established in 1958 under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act. 

• NAFED was founded with the objective to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation.

• Agricultural farmers are the main members of NAFED.

• The activities of NAFED add to the betterment of agriculture and post harvest of the produce. NAFED procures stocks directly from the farmers in regulated mandis in open auction through the cooperative infrastructure thereby providing them a ready market, fair price and preventing their exploitation at the hands of private traders.

• Also, whenever there is a glut in market due to bumper production when prices tend to crash, NAFED undertakes procurement at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) under the Price Support Scheme in case of 16 notified commodities (pulses, oilseeds, copra, dehusked coconut, cotton) thereby providing remunerative prices to farmers for their produce.

• There are over 900 members in NAFED, represented by chief executives of apex level marketing/consumer cooperative/other national level federations, state level marketing/ tribal/commodity federations and primary cooperative marketing/processing societies.

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