Current Status of Nutrient Fortification in Processed Foods and Food Fortification Policies in Other Countries

Nutrition fortification of processed foods with microelements is a popular practice in many countries to improve nutritional status of target population. In this study the current food fortification in Korea was evaluated and the regulations and guidelines for food fortification in other countries were presented. Most commonly added nutrients were calcium, vit.C, fiber, vit.Bs and iron. The level of fortified nutrients and the vehicle foods were variable. vit.C and fiber appeared to be overfortified in some foods and the necessity of fortification of these nutrients needs to be examined since the intakes of these elements appears to meet the RDA. Most of other nutrients such as vit.A, vit.B1, vit.B2, and iron were added at the level of 10~25% RDA per serving size. The vehicle foods for fortification were snacks, milk, ramyun, breakfast cereal, juices, candies and ready-to-eat retort pouch foods but not rice which is a staple food in Korea. The guideline and regulation for food fortification is required to ensure safe and proper supplementation of needed nutrients in processed foods.

Current Status of Nutrient Fortification in Processed Foods and Nutrition Labeling

Current status of nutrient fortification in processed food in Korea were presented by analyzing the information shown on food labels. The obtained information was assessed by the regulations on food fortification in both Korea and other countries including Codex. The most current regulations were gathered from internet. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Major nutrients fortified were calcium, Vit C, Vit B complex, iron and fiber. The forfified foods were not limitted to certain food group with more frequent fortification in snackfoods, cereal, ramyun, retort pouch foods, milk, and youguart. The descriptive terms of nutrition label for the fortification were various including high, supplemented, added, source, fortified, and abundance though the difference among these terms were not distinct. 2. Current regulation on nutrition laber requires to give the content of the fortified nutrient and % RDA. However not all of food items carry above information. Also some ingredients such as chitosan, DHA, taurine, omega-3 fatty acid, chondrichin, bifidus were supplemented mainly to the snack foods which FDA(USA) does not allow to be fortified. 3. The nutrient most frequently fortified was calcium and general practice of fortification appears to follow the regulation in Korea. Presently the regulation itself is not well described, this nutient fortification can cause toxic effect. Since calcium was supplemented to wide range of food group consumers who are not conscious of the safe upper limit may intake the fortified food up to the level of 2g/day. 4. For the effective fortification in Korea, the regulation on fortification should be reformed in accordance with the international guideline Codex and the regulations in other countries especially in America and Japan.