New Delhi, May 20: Industry leaders, policymakers and nutrition experts on Tuesday called for stronger industry collaboration, consumer awareness and market-led adoption to scale fortified staple foods across India and address micronutrient deficiencies and hidden hunger.
The discussions took place during the National Convening of Staple Food Industry Leaders for Developing a Roadmap on Scaling-Up Staple Food Fortification, organised by Millers for Nutrition powered by TechnoServe in association with the CII Food and Agriculture Centre of Excellence (CII FACE).
Stakeholders from the edible oil, rice and wheat flour sectors deliberated on commercially scalable and sustainable pathways to expand the adoption of fortified staples in retail and commercial markets.
Speaking at the convening, Shree Rakesh Kumar, Director (Science & Standards), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), said the regulator had simplified the framework for food fortification in India.
“FSSAI has been active in making regulations related to food fortification and made them voluntary. We have digitized the process and made it easy for seeking endorsement by those who want to offer fortified food,” Kumar said.
Participants at the convening highlighted the need to strengthen consumer awareness and trust around fortified staples, improve technical support for millers and enhance accessibility of fortified food products.
Mr. Cheran K, CEO of Kaleesuwari Refinery, said the industry needed to maintain quality standards despite cost pressures linked to premix imports.
“Probably as an industry we need to be aware of quality consciousness. Sometimes due to imports dependence, there may be some volatility and increase in prices of pre-mixes, despite that as an industry we need to continue to support fortification,” he said.
Mr. JT Chary, Managing Director of Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetables, said nutrition and wellness had become an important focus area for the food industry.
“We felt that wellness and nutrition for the citizens of India is most important. So, we thought of adding vitamin A and D in edible oils, and vitamins in other products like milk. We also work towards promoting fortification on our packaging and social media campaigns to increase awareness around this,” Chary said.
Senior representatives from government, food companies, millers, nutrition experts and development organizations attended the convening, including Shri Siraj A. Chaudhry, Former Co-Chair, CII National Committee on Nutrition, and Mr. Vidyashankar Satyakumar, Head of Research and Development at AWL Agri Business.
Industry leaders said private sector participation would be critical in integrating nutrition into mainstream packaged food products and scaling commercially viable fortification solutions with long-term public health impact.
Mr. Monojit Indra, Senior Practice Leader at TechnoServe and Program Leader, Millers for Nutrition Asia, said addressing hidden hunger at scale would require deeper collaboration across the food industry ecosystem.
“India has made important progress in advancing staple food fortification, but addressing hidden hunger at scale will require deeper collaboration across the food industry ecosystem. This convening has helped create stronger alignment between industry leaders, development partners and policymakers to accelerate the adoption of fortified staple foods and build sustainable pathways for nutrition impact,” Indra said.
Mr. Abhishek Shukla, Country Program Manager, Millers for Nutrition India, said the discussions reflected growing momentum towards market-driven nutrition solutions.
“The discussions at the convening reaffirmed that fortification could play a transformative role in strengthening nutrition security in India. The collective commitment demonstrated by stakeholders today reflects a growing momentum towards scaling fortified staples through market-led approaches, industry partnerships and increased consumer awareness,” Shukla said.
The convening concluded with stakeholders expressing a shared commitment to strengthen cross-sector collaboration, promote fortification excellence, support capacity-building efforts for food processors and millers, and develop actionable pathways for scaling fortified staple foods across India.