Abstract
Micronutrient deficiencies remain a significant public health issue in Southeast Asia, particularly in vulnerable populations, such as women of reproductive age and young children. An important nutrition-specific intervention to address micronutrient malnutrition is fortification of staple foods and condiments. In October 2013, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Southeast Asia Region held a workshop on micronutrient fortification of food in Bangkok, Thailand. The objective was to engage multiple stakeholders in a discussion on food fortification and its importance as a public health intervention in Southeast Asia, and to identify and address key challenges/gaps in and potential opportunities for fortification of foods in ASEAN countries. Key challenges that were identified include: “scaling up” and mobilizing sustainable support for fortification programs in the form of multi-stakeholder partnerships, effecting policy change to support mandatory fortification, long-term monitoring of the programs’ compliance and efficacy in light of limited resources, and increasing awareness and uptake of fortified products through social marketing campaigns. Future actions recommended include the development of terms of engagement and governance for multi-stakeholder partnerships, moving towards a sustainable business model and more extensive monitoring, both for effectiveness and efficacy and for enforcement of fortification legislation.
Highlights
Micronutrient malnutrition is a global public health issue affecting 2 billion people worldwide, pregnant women and young children
Public-Private Partnerships in Food Fortification In Southeast Asia, the private sector has a huge potential to contribute to food fortification as a public health strategy, helping the public sector to solve some of the issues surrounding malnutrition by making fortified products available and affordable or bringing new products/strategies around nutritious foods to Southeast Asian countries whilst aligning with their respective national nutrition plans
Food fortification is an effective strategy to address micronutrient deficiencies, which are still prevalent in some populations in Southeast Asia
Summary
Micronutrient malnutrition is a global public health issue affecting 2 billion people worldwide, pregnant women and young children. Despite steady economic growth and an increase in food supply and subsequent energy intake over the past decade in Southeast Asia, micronutrient deficiencies continue to affect women of reproductive age and children in a number of countries, with varying degrees of severity [4]. A survey of women of reproductive age and young children conducted in 2010 in Vietnam indicated that a large proportion of the population were still at risk for vitamin A, vitamin B12, folate and zinc deficiency [5]. Emerging deficiencies in other micronutrients such as vitamin D are prevalent in children in all four countries covered in the SEANUTS studies [6,7,8,9]
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