NATIONAL Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has again emphasized that Micronutrients such as vitamin A Iodine, Zinc to mention a few are the ultimate solution to malnourishment which indeed affects most Nigerian children.

Speaking recently in Lagos at a one-day sensitization Workshop on Enforcement of Food Fortification Programme in Nigeria, the Director General of NAFDAC; Dr. Paul Orhii emphasized that in line with the Federal Government initiative of adopting food fortification as key strategies for curbing malnourishment; there is a great need to sensitise the citizenry on eating foods that contain micronutrients.

Represented by NAFDAC, Directorate of Inspectorate, Mrs. Hauwa Keri, the DG pointed out that available evidence also showed that Nigeria had (and still has) one of the highest rates of child and maternal mortality in the world and vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) has been a major contributory factor. Micronutrient malnutrition (a.k.a. Hidden Hunger) has become a major devastating nutrition problem affecting health, especially that of children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. The major micronutrient deficiency disorders include Iodine Deficiency Disorder (DD), Vitamin A Deficiency (VAD) diseases and Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA).

The effects of IDD include goiter, hypothyroidism, mental retardation, physical deformities in children, miscarriages, still births and loss of energy.

"VAD which is our main area of concern is now recognized as one of the most common and devastating of all micronutrient deficiency problems in Nigeria. Until recently lack of VitaminA was seen as a nutritional problem causing night blindness in severe cases, but it has been revealed that a worse damaging effect is on the immune systems. Damage to the immune systems opens the doors to diseases such as measles, diarrheoa and acute respiratory infections, which send approximately a million children a year to their deaths."

Strategies for the control of micronutrient deficiencies in target population include supplementation with capsules/tablets (short term) food fortification (medium term) and Dietary Diversification - school and home gardens (long term).

A cost-effective, affordable and the most sustainable way to combat micronutrient deficiency is fortification of the more affordable, available and frequently eaten foods with the relevant essential vitamins and minerals. This means addition of the nutrient to the processed foods to obtain levels higher than the natural levels in them.

In view of the above facts, the Nigerian government in collaboration with the development agencies, in particular, UNICEF, Micronutrient Initiative (MI), WHO, and a committee of selected experts initiated certain actions and mounted control programmes aimed at addressing the micronutrient deficiency problems in the country.

In the late 1990s, the Vitamin A Food Fortification group of experts, which included officers from NAFDAC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), identified three food vehicles, Flour, sugar and vegetable. The levels of addition of nutrients were also established as follows.

Flour (Wheat and Maize and their meals e.g. Semovita - 30,000 International Units (IU) of Vitamin A per Kologram of flour, Sugar 25,000 IU., Vit. A/Kg, Edible Vegetable Oil 20,000 IU. Vit A/Kg, Margarine/Butter 22,000 - 33,000 IU. Vit.A/Kg.

Flour is furthere to be fortified with:

Iron - 40.7 mg/Kg, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) - 6.2 mg/Kg, Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) - 3.7 mg/Kg, Niacin (Nicotine Amide) - 49.5 mg/Kg, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) - 300 mg/Kg - to replace the banned flour Improver Potassium Bromate discovered to be dangerous to body systems.

The Fortification standards were launched by SON in 2000 and mandatory Fortification took off officially in September 2002. The national formal launch organized by NAFDAC, took place on 28th October, 2004.

Also, speaking during the sensitization workshop, the Project Manager of Nigeria - Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Project, Mr. John Tehinse urged every Nigeria to only buy food that has been adequately fortified. He explained that for foods fortified with vitamin A, such food labels would carry the eye logo. That is the picture of the human eyes.

And for those fortified with Iodine such as salts and sugars, the map of Nigeria is shown on such labels, he pointed out.

He added that: "The government regulatory bodies are making all efforts to ensure that the fortified food industries that are our great partners and the key players in the Food Fortification Programme comply as much as possible with the stipulated requirements.

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a coalition of nutrition-based NGO's in Geneva, is currently assisting the Nigeria Food Fortification Programme with funds on a 3-year work plan through the National Fortification Alliance (NFA) to strengthen the country efforts to monitor and enforce the food fortification programme."