Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Peer-reviewed

Impact of large-scale food fortification programmes on micronutrient inadequacies and their implementation costs: a modelling analysis

Valerie M Friesen, Christopher M. Free, Katherine P. Adams, Yan Bai, Leah Costlow, Kathryn G Dewey, William Masters, Mduduzi N. N. Mbuya, Stella Nordhagen, Florencia C Vasta, Ty Beal

The Lancet Global Health · 2026

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Summary

BACKGROUND: Micronutrient inadequacies are estimated to affect billions of people worldwide, yet these estimates exclude fortification. There are no global estimates of the impact of current fortification programmes on micronutrient inadequacies. We aimed to estimate how improving existing programmes or establishing new ones affects the prevalence of micronutrient inadequacies and to estimate their global costs. METHODS: In this modelling study, we estimated the prevalence of inadequate intakes of 13 micronutrients across 185 countries by integrating global modelled dietary intake data from the Global Dietary Database, with fortification programme parameters from the Global Fortification Data Exchange. We modelled six scenarios: no fortification, current fortification, improved compliance,

Source type
Peer-reviewed study
DOI
10.1016/s2214-109x(26)00023-9
Catalogue ID
SNmok6mlol-5bj1ym
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