Food Fortification is a nutritional intervention which is undertaken by the department of Food Science and Nutrition with the aim of preventing or correcting a demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the population or specific at-risk population groups by adding specific vitamins and minerals to widely consumed foods such as maize flour, edible oil, sugar and wheat flour. In Tanzania, TFNC has been undertaking fortification interventions in the rural communities of Kilolo and Handeni Districts where maize flour is fortified with vitamins and minerals. The micronutrients added include seven vitamins namely Riboflavin, Niacin, Cobalamin, Folate and Vitamin C and three minerals which are iron, zinc and calcium.

Advantages of food fortification are:

• Many nutrients can be incorporated  in a suitable food vehicle.

• Most socially acceptable method of changing the nutrient intake of the given population, since it does not require consumers to change their food choice.

• Cost effective method of alleviating dietary deficiencies. Generally lower cost than supplementation and diet improvement programs.

• Does not change the characteristics of the food.

• Can be introduced quickly since it does not require a well established delivery mechanism such as trained health personnel as used in Vitamin and mineral supplementation interventions.

• The fortified food has a potential of reaching all segments of target group quickly and effectively because the staple food which is fortified is usually already widely available and consumed by majority people in the community.

• Food fortification provides an effective medium - to long-term intervention, with greater sustainability.

Also TFNC  provides technical advices in this area such as:

• Development of community based food fortification activities.

• Assessment and selection of the potential food vehicles for fortification (e.g per capita consumption data for potential food vehicles, raw material and product marketing),

• Choosing the type, amount of fortificant or mixes and setting the levels,

• Selecting appropriate fortification technology and procedures for different food products,

• Carrying out organoleptic quality tests for consumer acceptability of fortified food,

• Determining bio-availability after storage of fortified products and their stability after cooking,

• Developing standards for the fortified food,

• Developing final product, packaging and labeling requirements.