Components of successful staple food fortification programs: Lessons from Latin America

By:
Reynaldo Martorell and Daniel Lopez de Romana
Food and Nutrition Bulletin
Date:
2017

An excellent peer review paper looking at success factors for food fortification programmes in three Latin American countries:

  • Flour fortification of wheat flour and neural tube defects (NTDs) in Chile.
  • Sugar fortification with Vitamin A in Guatemala.
  • Basket foods fortification with iron and other micronutrients in Costa Rica.

The findings of this paper have implications for public private engagement on food fortification. A common success factor was implementation and engagement between industry, government, academia, and civil society. The study finds that the use of strategically placed champions can dramatically improve uptake of fortification programmes. Figure 2 - the program impact pathway - is a helpful reference point in a collaborative design process on future food fortification programmes. A summary of the Latin American context is also helpful for anyone looking to implement fortification programmes at scale in this geography. The study highlights that successful food fortification partnerships are embedded within complex political economy and that socio-political factors need to be understood to harness the complementary skill sets of public and private actors.

This resource has been peer reviewed