Food Fortification

Creating value to society by addressing essential micronutrient deficiencies

Around two billion people – almost one third of the global population – suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, or ‘hidden hunger’. Women of reproductive age and children less than two years specifically need iron, folic acid, vitamin A and zinc. These nutrient deficiencies can contribute to increased morbidity and mortality among mothers and children. Hence, an adequate supply of micronutrients is crucial to a child’s development, especially during the first 1,000 days of life.

Micronutrient deficiencies that impair human development and the individual’s possibility to thrive also result in economic consequences: the performance of malnourished children in school and the overall productivity of populations are reduced.

Fortification of staple foods

Fortifying staple foods is an effective and sustainable solution to improve the nutritional status particularly among low-income population groups. Food fortification itself is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient in a food. In order to achieve this, staple food producers add selected essential micronutrients such as vitamin A to staple foods such as flour or oil. 

BASF’s Food Fortification Initiative offers product solutions, technical assistance and scientific capacities to contribute to reducing micronutrient deficiencies. We are engaged in projects in over 40 countries and work in multi-stakeholder alliances to ensure a sustainable impact. 

Learn more about micronutrient deficiency here

The Food Fortification Initiative is part of BASF and constitutes a flagship shared value initiative that addresses a humanitarian challenge in an economically sustainable manner in over 40 developing countries. Through our product solutions, technical assistance, scientific capacities and partnerships we support multi-stakeholder initiatives for improved nutrition, including academia, public-interest organizations and local private sector. 

In particular, BASF is committed to combating vitamin- and mineral deficiency by:

• Implementing nutrition improvement programs i.p. in low-income countries
  
• Promoting multi-stakeholder partnerships
  
• Driving need-oriented innovation
  
• Practicing technical and analytical capacity-building
  
• Advocating for an inclusive shared value business model, sustainable development as well as partnerships