Rice fortification

In rice, most of the B-vitamin and some minerals such as iron can be added.

Riboflavin can not be added as its orange color is too bright and will change the color of the fortified rice.

Fortifying rice

Rice coating, the technology involves the coating of ordinary rice with an alcoholic solution of ferrous sulfate and a suitable coating mixture to produce a premix, which is then mixed with ordinary rice at a predifined dilution to produce iron fortified rice.

Extruded rice, the technology involves the extrusion of a mixture of rice flour & mineral-vitamin-premix to produce a rice-kernel-like. The highly mineral-vitamin concentrated kernel will be then mixed with normal rice at a predefined ratio.

A Coeficient of Variation should be calculated to ensure that mineral and vitamins are homogeneously distributed in the finished product.

Fortification/ Fortificant losses during:

Rice preparation and normal cooking can result in the loss of certain fortificants. More specifically:

• Fortified rice when rinsed, will loose part of the water soluble vitamins.
• Fortified rice when cooked, will loose part of their water soluble vitamins.
• Fortified rice and coated rice might have a slightly different color or shape from unfortified rice, leading consumers to discard fortified grains before cooking.