Tiruchirappalli wary about fortified rice scheme under central project

People in Tiruchirappalli are wary ahead of the Tamil Nadu government’s pilot scheme under a central government project to distribute fortified rice in the district from October 1 to fight malnutrition, as misconceptions spreading on social media about the fortification process give rise to fear that consuming the rice will have adverse effect on health in the long term.

The main contention of the those against the scheme is that the rice to be distributed is fortified using artificial vitamins and minerals. 

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To allay the fears and concerns, officials and nutritional experts have started an awareness campaign through webinars and other platforms on how food fortification can address malnutrition. One such webinar was conducted on September 25 by the Tiruvarur-based Tamil Nadu Consumer Protection and Environment Research Centre (TNCPERC).

Fortification is the addition of vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine and zinc to staple foods like salt, oil, milk, wheat and rice. These vitamins and minerals may originally be absent or lost during processing of the food items. Fortification helps improve the nutritional content. 

The rice can be fortified in three ways — through coating, dusting or extrusion. In coating, the nutrient (mix of vitamins and minerals) is mixed with ingredients such as gums and waxes. The mixture is then sprayed on rice grains. 

In dusting, micronutrients are turned into fine particles and blended with rice. The nutrients attach to the surface of rice due to electrostatic force. 

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In extrusion, milled rice is pulverised and mixed with a nutrient mixture. Then fortified rice kernels are produced from this mixture using extruder machine. This method again has two types — hot and cold extrusion. In India, cold extrusion method is used since it is cost-effective. In Tamil Nadu, there are four companies producing fortified rice kernels.

“The fortified rice kernels (FRK) are no different from traditional rice kernels in shape, size, colour or aroma. The only difference is that it has added nutrients. There are nine kinds of nutrients that can be added to rice. However, according to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), three nutrients, namely iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 should be added mandatorily,” said a representative of one of the rice fortification companies that supplies FRK to Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC).

“We use hot extrusion method to get FRKs that are as hard as the rice given in ration shops. In coating and dusting methods, the nutrients may get lost while washing the rice before cooking,” he said.

The TNCSC has started moving 12,000 tonnes of rice fortified with micronutrients to ration shops. The fortified rice will be distributed through 1,224 ration shops in the district. It is expected that about 7.5 lakh card holders will get the rice. The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has earmarked Rs 10 crore for three years for the project to cover the costs of supplying fortified rice, blending and transportation.

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“At the TNCSC, we ensure that the mixing is done right. Only after quality assurance will the fortified rice be supplied to people. This pilot project will end after three years and, hopefully, the endline study will show the expected results. Stickers have be pasted at nutrition meal centres and PDS shops to make people aware about fortified rice and its significance,” a senior official at the  TNCSC said.

Fortified rice to address anaemia

In August 2019, during his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme, prime minister Narendra Modi had said that fortified rice will be supplied to people to combat malnutrition in the country. The project was planned on a pilot basis in 15 districts in 15 states, but so far only 10 states have agreed and designated a district for the study. Maharashtra and Gujarat started distributing fortified rice from February through the public distribution system (PDS).

“In Tamil Nadu, Tiruchirappalli has been selected because it has the most number of women (65.7 percentage) affected by anaemia, according to the National Family Health Survey 4,” said R Ramesh, general secretary, TNCPERC.

Many think food fortification is new in India. But it dates back to 1950s when vanaspati fortification with Vitamin A was mandated. In 1986, the national policy on universal salt iodization was adopted. The National Nutrition Policy introduced in 1993 identified and placed fortification of essential foods as a short-term direct nutrition intervention. Over the years, fortification of other foods such as milk (2017), edible oil (2018), wheat (2018) and rice (2019) were introduced. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is the nodal agency for the food fortification project and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has come up with the dosages of nutrients that must be added for fortification.

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However, awareness about fortification is quite low in India. In fact, a few months ago, a video on rice fortification was circulated widely in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India saying it was a process to make plastic rice, which is used to adulterate rice in India.

“In the olden days, people used to eat unpolished, hand-pounded rice. So, they got most of the nutrients naturally. But, today, rice gets polished and, in the process, we lose most of the nutrients. To compensate for this loss, we have to fortify rice,” said Ramesh.

To address the problem of anaemia among pregnant women in the state, the government is providing nutrition supplements like vitamin, folic acid and iron tablets through the Amma Maternity Nutrition Kits. Besides, providing fortified rice will help address malnutrition, he said.

“After salt fortification, abortion rate decreased and cases of people affected with problems like goitre are becoming rare,” said Ramesh.

The state already has a fortified rice scheme running on a pilot basis through Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and noon-meal schemes in five districts namely the Nilgiris, Dharmapuri, Madurai, Thanjavur and Thoothukkudi.

“In these districts, fortified rice was introduced in November 2019. For every 100 kg rice, one kg is fortified. Under the noon-meal scheme, children up to classes 5 get 100 grams of rice per head and those in above class 5 get 150 grams of rice. The children eat fortified rice kernels and we have not received any complaint or objection from any of these districts till now. We need at least two years to know the results. However, it is a proven method to address malnutrition and is followed across the world,” said V R Jayalakshmi, joint director (nutritious meal), Department of Social Welfare.

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Is fortified rice recommended for those with diseases such as diabetes?

“A few years ago, the government had tried to introduce ‘golden rice’, which had vitamin A. But the project never took off. The rice we eat today has only limited nutrients because of polishing. So, the government’s move can be welcomed. But at the same time, the rice should be taken in low quantity, since today we have both undernutrition and over-nutrition problems. Instead of eating polished white rice, people should chose brown rice, which is more healthy,” said nutrition expert Sudha Vasudevan of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation.