Miller Magazine Issue: 136 April 2021

70 MILLER / aprıl 2021 COVER STORY as 11% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa and Asia is estimated to be lost to malnutrition each year, primarily from worker productivity losses. However, for every dollar spent on flour fortification, US $84 is saved through reduction of anemia. 6 Sustained flour fortification has also been associated with a 2.4% reduction in anemia prevalence among nonpregnant women of childbearing age, and an increase in serum retinol, a measure of vitamin A intake, in populations from 0.94 to 1.06 μmol/L. 7, 8 One of the most visible effects of flour fortification is the reduc- tion of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, in new-born babies caused by inadequate folic acid stores during early pregnancy. Af- ter Chile mandated flour fortification with folic acid in 2000, hospi- tals recorded a steady decrease in neural tube defects from 18.6 per ten thousand births in 1999 to 8.39 per ten thousand in 2009. 6 Measuring Iron and Vitamin A in Flours with iChecks It is not enough to simply mandate fortification at a national policy level. Appropriate quality assurance and quality con- trol monitoring must take place within industry at the level of production. Additionally, regulatory bodies need to provide an adequate level of monitoring, support to industry, and en- forcement measures if fortification is to be sustained long- term. BioAnalyt has made the process of monitoring fortifica- tion and measuring concentrations of various micronutrients in a wide variety of foods easier. In wheat and maize flours, BioAnalyt’s iCheck devices enable the rapid and reliable measurement of iron and vitamin A on-site and without the need for expensive laboratory equipment. iCheck Iron is a portable, single-wavelength photometer, that quantitatively measures iron in multiple food matrices. Similar to reference methods, iCheck Iron measures total iron in food samples including maize and what flour. Iron that is measured may be intrinsic iron as well as iron added during fortification as either ferrous fumarate, ferrous sulfate, NaFeEDTA, and/or ferric pyrophosphate. Intrinsic iron is natural iron present in organic samples, averaging between 10-60 mg/kg. The performance of iCheck Iron is comparable to reference laboratory methods. 11 iCheck Fluoro is a portable, single wavelength fluorometer that quantitatively measures vitamin A in foods and biological substances. iCheck Fluoro measures added vitamin A as ret- inyl palmitate and retinyl acetate. The performance of iCheck Fluoro is also comparable to reference laboratory methods. 11 References: 1 Food fortification Initiative website 2 Hoogendoom et al. 2FAS EC. 2016. 3 Klemm et al. Food Nutr. Bull. 2010. 4 Bashai & Nalubola. EDCC. 2013. 5 GFDx. 2020. 6 FFI, 2020. 7 Barkley et al. Br. J. Nutr 2015. 8 Dary, USAID. 2016. 9 Laillou et al, Food Nutr. Bull. 2014. 10 Jaeger A, FST Mag. 2014. 11 BioAnalyt internal data. About BioAnalyt BioAnalyt develops field-friendly devices that de- liver instant nutrient and health measurement. In partnership with organizations such as World Food Programme, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DSM, BASF, Cargill, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and Food Fortification Initiative, the iCheck devices have been implemented in over 70 countries around the world making reliable measurement affordable and accessible.