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After a break of about three years, flour millers in Gujarat relaunched the flour fortification programme in the state. The members of Gujarat Roller Flour Millers' Association will process about 70,000 tonnes of wheat flour per month to fortify it with nutrients like iron and folic acid.
"The fortification will have 30 ppm iron and 1.5 ppm folic acid, which will be sourced as pre-mix from the suppliers from different parts. Because the ready mix is available for nominal value, that will have nominal impact on the price of the wheat flour," said Ram Avatar Agarwal, president, Gujarat Roller Flour Millers' Association.
The fortification programme will be taken up with technical support by Food Fortification Initiative, India - an international partnership working to improve health by advocating for fortification in industrial grain mills.
"At a time when Gujarat is excelling in all respects be it development or infrastructure, the basic health amenities are often ignored. So the Gujarat Roller Flour Millers' Association in association with the Food Fortification Initiative thought to re-launch the flour fortification scheme in the state," said Subrata Dutta, India Coordinator, Food Fortification Initiative, USA.
The fortified wheat flour will be sold through the retail chain with a standard packing of 25 kg.
Earlier, Gujarat government had initiated wheat flour fortification programme under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana in 2006. But the same was discontinued in 2012 for lack of availability of milling capacity and testing facilities.
Later in July 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had criticised the state government for discontinuing the scheme. "Though the use of fortified wheat flour was cost-effective and increased intake of micro-nutrients, the state government discontinued the project on May 2012 after incurring a total expenditure of ₹210 crore," the CAG noted in its report tabled in state assembly in July 2014.
The CAG noted that instead of making efforts to overcome the hindrances on implementation of the scheme, the state government opted to shut it down.
Gujarat has about 88 millers spread across state with their combined installed capacity of around 1.5 lakh tonnes per month.
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