What is the difference between enrichment fortification and supplementation

An example of this is iron, which is best absorbed through animal food products. Cereal is typically enriched with plant-based iron, or elemental iron. In comparison with animal products, both of these sources boast a fraction of the absorbability because of the structure of the added nutrient and because it is isolated from other vitamins and nutrients that aid in absorption.

The thing is, life is different now than it was in the middle ages. Since enriched food is processed until the nutrients are lost, it seems to me that eating products that are less processed is a better answer to the problem of missing nutrients in enriched foods. Fortified food on the other hand, is a different story. When it comes to a addressing widespread deficiencies, public health advisories and doctor advice have been pretty effective, historically speaking.

It's probably wise to welcome the supplemental support available to us in fortified food and supplements, when necessary. To sum it up, enriching means adding the original nutrients back into processed foods and fortifying means adding greatly-needed nutrients to foods that might not have had them in the first place.

Wednesday, September 28, In , the United States began a public health intervention that required manufacturers to fortify cereal grain products labeled as enriched with mcg of folic acid per grams of flour Right after this intervention was started, the number of pregnancies affected by and babies born with neural tube defects began to decline.

Using data from a number of birth defects tracking systems, researchers have found that since the beginning of folic acid fortification in the United States, about 1, babies are born each year without a neural tube defect who might otherwise have had a neural tube defect Therefore, these data confirm that folic acid fortification is an important way to prevent neural tube defects.

Mandatory folic acid fortification has been shown to be an effective public health intervention. Still, not all women of reproductive age are getting the recommended amount of folic acid.

This puts them at higher risk for having a baby affected by a neural tube defect. Additional public health interventions targeting these women could help further reduce the number of neural tube defects that occur each year. What are the differences between voluntary and mandatory fortification?

Voluntary fortification allows food manufacturers to add vitamins or minerals, or both, to foods, as long as they abide by the Food and Drug Administration FDA food additive regulations external icon.

Mandatory fortification requires food manufacturers to add certain vitamins or minerals, or both, to specified foods. Mandatory fortification is done to address a significant public health need.

For example, in the s, the FDA required addition of several B vitamins—thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin—to flour to eliminate these vitamin deficiencies in the U. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs. What is the difference between enriched and fortified foods? Jodie Shield on behalf of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. If a food has been enriched, nutrients lost during the milling process are added back.

Many breads, flours, and rice are enriched with B vitamins and iron. If a food has been fortified, nutrients that were never there originally are added to enhance the nutritional profile of the food and often to promote health. While food fortification has been viewed by some as a nutritional triumph and to be fair, it has resulted in significant decreases in several nutrient deficiency diseases that were common in the early twentieth century , individual supplementation with vitamins or minerals has at best been deemed unnecessary without underlying deficiency, and at worst been called potentially hazardous.

So what are the differences between supplementation and fortification, which makes one more acceptable than the other? In reality, there is little difference between these two schemes for improving nutrient intake.

Food fortification uses many of the same ingredients as supplements; comparing the ingredient lists on a cereal box and multivitamin bottle will reveal several of the same chemical compounds. Looking at the sample TLC menus, however, one begins to realize a significant percentage of several essential nutrients comes from fortification, and not necessarily from the foods themselves. Without fortification, these meals could be deficient for all but one of the above nutrients.