By Ephraim Oseji & Anino Aganbi

Experts in Food Science and Technology say the fortification of some food items in Nigeria is a reality with the appropriate additional nutritional content.

This was revealed during the 41st Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology in partnership with TechnoServe and others held in Abuja to ensure that adequate awareness of the benefit of fortified food is created for the general public. Present at the conference were   Mr. Larry Umunna, (Country Director, TechnoServe Nigeria), Dr. Dahiru.J. Adamu, (National President, Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology), Mr Rizwan Yusufali (Regional Program Director, TechnoServe), Dr. Phillip Makhumula, (Fortified Expert and Consultant, Malawi), Dr. Kingsley Akinroye (Executive Director, Nigerian Heart Foundation) among other stakeholders.

Speaking at the event, Program Director , Strengthening Africa Processor of Fortified Foods (SAPFF), Rizwan Yusufali, said: “Our mission at TechnoServe is to work with enterprising people in developing countries to build competitive farms, businesses and industries.

This aligns very well with this year’s theme “Rejuvenating the Nigerian Economy through promoting of the food chain”. We will be able to contribute towards the theme with our involvement in the country. We operate in about 29 countries in the world and SAPFF   operates in 3 countries . We will be working in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania. Our theory of change is to be the catalyst and partner to improve market system and strengthen food value chain. We do that through developing capacity of individuals, industry, business and market partners and also by improving business environment.

The SAPFF project is a $10 million initiative funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and it is primarily targeting fortification of food. We plan on running this project for the next 4 years in 3 countries. Through this, we are focusing on all staple foods in Nigeria that are mandatorily required to be fortified.”

Speaking further, he said: “Our theory for change and framework is to target main food processing companies that account for more than 70 percent of the market share, thereby improving the competitiveness and profitability of these companies.

Strengthening the food sector is the fundamental building block for fortification compliance to improve. If we can strengthen food companies by transferring the knowledge and expertise that exist from global food companies that have been doing this for a number of years successfully and bringing that connection to these 3 countries, improving food sector here; getting them to adopt those solutions and making them more profitable, will shift, in a large way, the national compliance rate of food modification.

The Executive Director, Nigerian Heart Foundation, Dr. Kingsley Akinroye, also said: “In the  Nigerian Heart Foundation, we are very interested in healthy nutrition for the country. One of the products of healthy nutrition is cardiovascular health. The current status of cardiovascular health in Nigeria tells you that the number one killer disease we have in developing countries are non communicable diseases.

80 percent of diseases in the adult population are due to cancer, heart, and   related diseases including diabetes. Heart is the number one killer disease in the whole population, more than HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and other diseases.

That is to say, in developing countries 80 percent of diseases are due to non communicable diseases and the heart is number 1. We have been able to tackle this by showing the progress and importance of nutrition and to say that nutrition is very important right from the cradle. In Nigeria, we have been promoting the awareness of non communicable diseases, nutrition is very important and should start from the womb.

If nutrition from pregnancy is bad, more people are going to have heart disease and this is what we have in developing countries today. Food fortification is important. We are also interested in pack food labeling which we have been doing since 1998. The Nigerian Heart Foundation is interested in prevention, research and advocacy. Our food program is there.

The future is, we want to really promote the consumption of fortified food. One of such is cocoa because it contains flavonoid, we know that food beverage is very important. The Nigerian Heart Foundation will like you to look into this as well as   all the other aspects you have to look into. Flavonoids are very important as antioxidants and the future of this is in the research. We want more research into this because a lot of people in the country take beverages. So if you fortify these beverages, it is going to be important.

Mr John Coumantarous, Chairman, Flour Mills Nigeria, states: “In the industry, we believe that the challenge of food is a very serious one. We are not talking about quantity but about the right balance. The concern of the industry and all stakeholders and particularly nutritionists is that the consciousness of this challenge called hidden hunger is not being taken seriously by a lot of the stakeholders, especially at the policy level. In 1995, the mandatory fortification for salt commenced and moved on to edible oil, sugar and wheat flour. However, these mandatory categories are basically a small proportion of the food consumption of Nigerians. So, a lot is still unfortified.”

“What we are doing as consumers is filling our stomach and not eating right. You can see it manifest in the quality of leadership at all levels. We lack proper cognitive development. This is the challenge we have to drive home. We believe that organisations like these are on the right track in trying to drive this consciousness”, he said.

Dr Phillip Makhumula, fortification expert and consultant, Malawi, said: “Nutritionists in Nigeria say we have an issue on the production of fortification of food. If we don’t keep our numbers, then we will not know which way we are going. I have heard a lot that compliance of food fortification in Nigeria could be much better. We need to know what micronutrients we are adding and what it is for. We also need to know how much we are adding to satisfy the standard.