Government is going to introduce fortified flour in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) to address micronutrients deficiencies.
In this connection Planning and Development Department (P&DD) Gilgit Baltistan held an advocacy session in Sost, Hunza to highlight the importance and motivate community to use the fortified flour to overcome malnutrition.
During the session it was revealed that a survey report of Scaling up Nutrition unit of planning and development department of GB shows most of the children below five years of age have been suffering from acute malnutrition.
The report further reveals 59 per cent are underweight, 33 per cent vitamin D deficient and 72 per cent are vitamin A deficient.
This poor nutrition status has been attributed to deficient intake of some of the essential micronutrients like vitamin A, vitamin D, Zinc, folic acid and iron during critical stages of physiological changes of pregnancy and child growth.
Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e.
vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.
According to WHO, Fortification of industrially processed wheat flour, when appropriately implemented, is an effective, simple, and inexpensive strategy for supplying vitamins and minerals to the diets of large segments of the population.
