India: FFI Advocates for Revising India’s Wheat Flour Fortification Standards

FFI partners with local voices to advocate for revising India’s national wheat flour fortification standards and fight misinformation

In 2021, FFI led efforts in India to engage multi-sector fortification partners, fight misinformation, and identify champions who can encourage the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to reconsider the country’s current cereal grain standards.

To ensure fortification efforts in India are locally-led, FFI helped form and contributed to the India Birth Defect Prevention Task Force (BDPTF). The task force is comprised of researchers, clinicians, public health professionals, members of national and international organizations, spina bifida survivors, and former Indian Administrative Services officers. This multi-sectoral group of collaborators aims to prevent birth defects by providing science-based evidence to align the country’s wheat flour fortification standards with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. Established under the Indian Spina Bifida Foundation, the task force includes leaders from FFI, Center for Spina Bifida Prevention, Birth Defects and Childhood Disability Research Centre, International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, Emory University, and WHO Southeast Asia Regional Office, among others.

With FFI’s assistance, BDPTF sent a letter to the Prime Minister, Health Minister, Minister of Women and Child Development, and Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment highlighting the pressing need for fortification in India and requesting the revision of wheat flour fortification standards.

BDPTF met the Health Minister of India and other key officials in November 2021 to advocate for the revision of India’s current fortification standards. Thanks to momentum generated from these meetings, BDPTF was invited to present to a panel of experts at FSSAI that make the ultimate decision to update the standards.

The presentation, which could be pivotal to the future of India’s food fortification programming, is planned for early 2022. Additionally, FFI helped the task force develop a position paper for members to use when advocating with potential fortification champions.

In response to a rise in misinformation from pseudo-scientific articles and the press in 2021, FFI and BDPTF drafted a press release that addresses Indians’ concerns and the need for a nutrition intervention such as food fortification. BDPTF also has plans to hold a press conference to help the Indian media communicate key advocacy messages for lay people. In 2022, BDPTF plans to host a media workshop that will feature speakers who know the challenges associated with living with spina bifida intimately—families of spina bifida survivors.

Whether debunking misinformation in the media or engaging champions to revise national fortification standards, FFI and BDPTF’s advocacy efforts reaffirm what decades of studies in the country and globally show: large-scale food fortification is a proven, effective, and safe way to help all Indians receive the nutrition they need to thrive, now.