Civil society groups welcome govt's suspension of rice fortification scheme

Experts said that the reasoning given by the government to stop the scheme, which is loss of nutrients in fortified rice due to prolonged storage, is extremely plausible

The government’s abrupt decision last week to stop the much publicised scheme to distribute fortified rice through the Public Distribution System (PDS) has not only stunned the rice kernel producers but also taken civil society groups by surprise. These groups for long have been demanding a cessation of the scheme due to different reasons.

 

The government while suspending the scheme for now had said that their decision is based on a government-mandated study by the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. The study found that over time, micronutrient levels of Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) and Fortified Rice (FR) declined due to prolonged storage and routine handling.

 

As the government usually stores rice in the central pool for more than two to three years due to huge procurement volumes and limited annual offtake, there is a possibility of nutrient loss in fortified rice, making them ineffective.

 

Most of these rice varieties were  fortified with iron, vitamin B-12, and folic acid to address the chronic anemia problem in India.

 

“This is a very good development! We have always said that either this is an expensive but very ineffective intervention, or it is unsafe and toxic. It cannot be safe and effective. While the government is citing a study to stop this large scale fortification, we had shown much evidence that not all anaemia is linked to iron deficiency, nor is fortification an effective solution,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, Founder Convenor of Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA).

 

Experts said that the reason given by the government to stop the scheme, which is loss of nutrients in fortified rice due to prolonged storage, is extremely plausible.

 

“Look, with humidification iron rusts. You must have seen that iron can rust due to humidification and a rise in temperature. India being a vast country, some areas are near the sea, which have high humidity and temperature meaning that if the duration of storage in these areas is abnormally high things can deteriorate. This happens even in medicines,” Dr HPS Sachdev, senior consultant, paediatrics at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research and a well-known researcher on fortified rice, told Business Standard.

 

He said the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has well laid out guidelines on storage and handling of fortified rice and fortified rice kernels.

 

Rice fortification is done to enrich the micro and macronutrient structure of rice, which has grains of different sizes, colour, texture and so on.

 

For fortification, a paste of micro nutrients or a concentrated mixture of micronutrients like iron or various salts of iron like ferrous sulphate, sodium gluconate or sodium iron, along with other micro nutrients like folic acid and B12 are made into something that looks like a rice grain called Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK). These FRKs are then mixed with the actual rice grains to enrich its nutrient content.

 

Meanwhile, the government in its statement also said that the process of fortification will remain suspended, until a more effective mechanism for delivery of nutrients to beneficiaries is identified.

 

To this, Sachdev said that the best way to ensure nutrition for the masses is through food.

 

“Nutrition means food. And food has many other components apart from this. So, fresh, non-inflammatory food, fresh fruits, vegetables and a wholesome diet is the correct answer for the nutrition question and to supplement it, iron supplementation programmes are already running in the country in a tablet form,” Sachdev said.

 

He said one major problem with fortification of rice was that rice has different varieties and different texture and so it is impossible to match every rice structure with the fortified rice kernels or FRKs in a manner that the consumer while cooking or eating does not distinguish it. Sometimes the colour changes and there have been reports of the consumers saying that this is plastic rice.