The Milk Fortification project, a joint initiative of World Bank, Tata Trusts and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), aims to process about two million tonnes of fortified liquid milk during the next 23 months to reach 30 million consumers as a strategy to tackle malnutrition.
Inaugurating an awarness workshop on 'Sustaining Efforts of Milk Production in India' on 7 June, National Dairy Development Board Chairman Dilip Rath said Vitamin A and D deficiencies were widely prevalent in India.
"Fortification of appropriate foods with Vitamin A and D is a viable strategy to tackle micronutrient malnutrition," he added.
Rath said about two billion people globally suffer from micronutrient deficiencies accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the global health burden.
According to National Family Health Survey-4 data, 38.4 per cent of children five years of age in India are stunted, 21 per cent wasted and 35.7 per cent are underweight.
"Milk in India has emerged as the best vehicle for fortification with its high volume of production, widespread distribution network, affordability and all around acceptability in the daily food habit," Rath pointed out.
"We are world's largest milk producing country and our per capita milk availability has now increased to 375 grams per day," he added.
Moreover, milk fortification was highly affordable and cost effective as it cost less than 2 to 3 paisa per litre, Rathid Rath said.
The fortification is strictly carried out as per the SOPs developed by NDDB and FSSAI and the milk federations and producers have to regularly submit reports to the Board.
According to the NDDB Chairman, of the 25 project proposals approved, fortification has been launched in 15 milk federations and trials have completed in 10 others. About one million metric tonnes of milk has been fortified so far.
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