PMID: 18185494Jan 11, 2008Paper

Trends in wheat-flour fortification with folic acid and iron--worldwide, 2004 and 2007

MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Abstract

Consumption of adequate amounts of folic acid by women before pregnancy and during early pregnancy decreases their risk for having a pregnancy affected by neural tube defects (NTDs), the most common preventable type of birth defects worldwide. Consumption of iron ameliorates iron deficiency, the most prevalent nutritional deficiency in the world, affecting approximately 2 billion persons. Although certain populations consume substantial amounts of rice and corn, worldwide, the consumption of wheat flour is greater than that of any other cereal grain. Fortification of wheat flour is an effective, simple, and inexpensive strategy for supplying folic acid, iron, and other vitamins and minerals to large segments of the world population. To assess the global change from 2004 to 2007 in 1) the percentage of wheat flour being fortified with folic acid and iron; 2) the total number of persons overall and women in particular with access to fortified wheat flour; and 3) the total number of newborns whose mothers had access to fortified wheat flour during pregnancy, CDC analyzed data from the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI). This report summarizes the results of that assessment, which indicated that the worldwide percentage of wheat-...Continue Reading

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