Usage of Ferrous Fumarate & Ferric Pyrophosphate in Food Fortification

What is Food Fortification??

Food fortification?is the practice of adding minerals and nutrients to the routinely consumed food to increase its nutrient value. The impact of micronutrient deficiencies is devastating especially in women and children and is observed worldwide. Lack of nutrients can be due to poor diet or limited access to these crucial micronutrients. And food fortification has proved to be the safest and cost efficient method to address micronutrients deficiencies.

Usually, staple food like wheat, maize, rice, salt, oil, or pulses which are consumed consistently is fortified so that it reaches the entire population. Crucial micronutrients that are fortified in food are iron, folic acid, vitamin A, and iodine.

Iron Fortification

Iron deficiency?being the most prevalent deficiency worldwide, food fortification substantiated to be the effective strategy to arrest the iron deficiency. Iron is the most difficult mineral to add to food. Even though many iron compounds can be used at disposal but very few meet the requirements like bioavailability, inertness, resistance, and absorption. The one that meets the requirement is likely to follow the pattern of dietary iron.?

As recommended by World Health Organization, ferrous fumarate and ferric pyrophosphate are the most commonly used iron fortifications. Although?ferrous sulfate?has the highest bioavailability that rapidly catalyzes into rancid products, it is not considered by the food manufacturers as they cause unacceptable sensory changes in the fortified food. Ferric Pyrophosphate and Ferrous fumarate are water-insoluble compounds that do not readily dissolve in gastric juice but cause a few sensory problems.

Role of Ferrous fumarate and Ferric Pyrophosphate

Ferrous fumarate?is a form of mineral?iron?which elevates the iron concentration in the body that in return assimilates into hemoglobin, increasing the oxygen transport in the body. Ferrous fumarate, an organic iron, despite being water-insoluble has absorption equivalent to ferrous sulfate in Western adults with an advantage of fewer sensory problems. It is widely used to fortify cereal-based foodFerrous fumarate has been fortified in cereals and children’s food like chocolate drinks to target adolescents and children. Demonstrations have proved ferrous fumarate to be comparatively more bioavailable than ferric pyrophosphate in European infants, thus, found infant cereals.

Ferric Pyrophosphate, unlike ferrous sulfate, does not modify organoleptic characteristics of the food i.e. these compounds are sensitive to unacceptable flavor or color changes. It is half as well absorbed as ferrous fumarate. Thus they are used to double the iron content in foods where changes are unacceptable like cereals, bouillon cubes, rice kernels, fruits, vegetables or drink powders. The drawback of this compound is usually overcome by the addition of tetrasodium pyrophosphate which enhances the bioavailability of?Ferric pyrophosphate. Ferric pyrophosphate is an iron compound containing iron cations and diphosphate anions. The ferric ion inside is complexed by pyrophosphate. The increasing demand is due to its milder action in gastrointestinal liquid and presents higher bioavailability.

Acknowledging the right to safe and nutritious food is significant. Fortification is one among several approaches to attain this goal and, specifically, to fight iron deficiency. However, fortification should always be considered as one component of an integrated strategy