Definition of Food Fortification/Enrichment

Food fortification has been defined as the addition of one or more essential nutrients to a food, whether or not it is normally contained in the food, for the purpose of preventing or correcting a demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the population or specific population groups (FAO/WHO 1994). Other terminology exists for the addition of nutrients to foods. Restoration means the addition to a food of essential nutrients which are lost during the course of Good Manufacturing Process (GMP), or during normal storage and handling procedures, in amounts which will result in the presence in the food of the levels of the nutrients present in the edible portion of the food before processing, storage or handling (FAO/WHO, 1994). Enrichment has been used interchangeably with fortification, but elsewhere it has been defined as the restoration of vitamins and minerals lost during processing.
Food fortification continues to be a widely used mechanism in many countries. In this context, it is the rapidly changing lifestyles and increasing reliance on more highly processed foods has been used to justify the addition of nutrients to an expanding range of foods in order to ensure nutritional adequacy of the diet.