Micronutrients: Olam Agri To Deliver 1Trillion Servings Of Fortified Food By 2030

Olam Agri, a leading agribusiness, has said it will deliver one trillion servings of fortified food, as efforts to provide essential micronutrients to over 250 million people each day by 2030. 

It is estimated that three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet annually. This unhealthy population is expected to rise by 267.6 million due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Speaking at the recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF), senior vice president, Olam Agri, Ashish Pande, said reaching people with micronutrients such as Vitamin A, iron, zinc, iodine, and folate on a global scale is seen as strategic to halting the unfavourable rise in unhealthy diets.

Pande said Olam Agri is committed to helping to raise the standard of public health as it contributes to meeting the growing demand for healthy foods across the African continent and beyond, adding that food fortification is at the core of Olam Agri‘s purpose of transforming food, feed, and fibre for a sustainable future.

He disclosed that in 2021, the company produced more than 83 billion servings of fortified foods for consumers in Africa, which included fortified rice in Ghana and Cameroon. 

„Our commitment goes beyond meeting regulatory requirements to addressing the important nutrient gaps faced by millions of people. By 2030, we pledge to deliver one trillion servings of fortified food – wheat flour, edible oil, rice to provide essential micronutrients to over 250 million people each day,” Pande added.

Diving into the barriers and solutions to scale fortification initiatives on the globe, the vice chair of the Food System Champion Network, Paul Newnham said, Millers are a powerful new ally in the global fight against malnutrition. 

Newnham revealed that one in two children and two in three women face at least one micronutrient deficiency, adding that, fortification has a critical role to play. 

To round off the discourse on food fortification at the forum, a formidable initiative tagged Miller 4 Nutrition Global Coalition was launched. According to Newnham, the initiative aims to gather millers of all sizes and diverse actors to improve nutrition worldwide.