Chandigarh, March 12: In view of high prevalence of Vitamin A and D deficiency in the population of Punjab, all the Milk Processing Plants in the State have been issued an Advisory on Milk Fortification as per Food Safety and Standards(Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016.
Food Fortification is a scientifically proven, cost-effective, scalable and sustainable global intervention that addresses the issue of micronutrient deficiencies, said KS Pannu, Mission Director, Tandrust Punjab.
He informed that in October 2016, FSSAI operationalized the Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016 for fortifying many staples including milk to reduce the high burden of micronutrient malnutrition in India.
He informed that the ‘+F’ logo has been notified to identify fortified foods. As per the provisions of Schedule-I of Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016, it has been advised that milk (Toned, double toned, skimmed milk or standardized milk) should be fortified with the micronutrients , at the level of Vitamin A 270 μg RE – 450 μg RE and Vitamin D 5 μg -7.5 μg.
Mission Director said that since population in Punjab is suffering from acute deficiency of vitamin D and vitamin A, hence milk fortification is required essentially to address such micronutrient deficiencies. Therefore, all milk processing plants in the State of Punjab selling packaged liquid milk have been requested to start the fortification of milk as per the provisions of Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016 .
He said that all the Food Safety Officers in the state have been directed to bring the matter to the notice of all milk processing plants engaged in sale of packaged liquid milk to public.
Pertinently, there are about 50 Milk plants in State with maximum being 14 in district Amritsar followed by 8 in Ludhiana.
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