Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in Delhi gave up on the idea of using only iron fortified salt within a couple of months as the iron content turned the food black and children refused to eat it.
On April 20 2011, the Prime Minister’s Office had announced that the government would promote salt fortified with iodine and iron, called double-fortified salt (DFS), to meet India’s nutritional challenges. The fortified salt was being given to children mainly through ICDS. One year from then, Delhi government failed to implement the directive fully.
“We tried 100 per cent use of DFS for a couple of months. But that would turn food black. Children and parents said the food was bad and would not consume it. Thus, we discontinued it. Now we use 40 per cent DFS and 60 per cent iodine salt while cooking,” said Rajiv Kale, director, women and child development, Government of Delhi.
He said the government’s efforts to convince people about the quality of food, were in vain as the food did not look palatable.
The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) developed DFS in the light of increasing malnourishment among children in India. It was aimed at tackling the twin problems of iron deficiency anaemia and iodine deficiency disorders.
In the wake of recent reports of nearly 42 per cent of malnourished children in India, the issue has gained momentum.
“Iodine and iron react with each other making it tough to combine the both in food items. After years of research we finally combined the two,” said Dr B Sesikeran, director, NIN.
Pointing at the importance of salt for the purpose he said, “Similar research is taking place for cereals too. But different cereals are used in different parts of the country. Salt is omnipresent. It is used everywhere. Thus, it is important to promote and use DFS.”
However, large scale promotion of DFS has come under fire due to the limited research conducted to assess its benefits on the human population.
NIN conducted its experiments in four blocks in Andhra Pradesh and one school. The experiments suggested marked improvement in haemoglobin levels of the studied population.
“India is diverse and the level of malnourishment differs from region to region and from urban to poor areas. The sample of NIN is not enough to prove efficiency of DFS,” said a senior nutritionist on condition of anonymity.
Dr V M Katoch, director, ICMR said, “The study shows DFS does not cause any harm and increases nutrition among consumers so it can be used. However, we have to conduct a large scale study for proper assessment.”
Tata Chemicals launched its DFS earlier this month, commercially introducing the salt for all segments for the first time at national level. Other manufacturers such as Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation produce it for limited purpose like for using in mid-day meal scheme.
Ten gms of DFS gives 50 per cent of dietary requirement of iron per day. Human body needs 15 mg of iron a day and 10 gms of salt provides 8.5 mg.