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IBADAN, Nigeria — In his cramped, dimly lit kitchen, Idowu Bello leans over a gas stove as he stirs a pot of eba, West Africa’s fatty fat made from cassava root. Kidney problems and chronic exhaustion force the 56-year-old Nigerian woman to retire from teaching, and she switches from cooking with gas or on a wood fire depending on the fuel she can afford.
Financial constraints also limit the food Bello has on hand, although doctors have recommended a nutrient-dense diet both to improve his failing health and to help his teenage daughter, Fatima, grow. Along with eba, on the menu today is melon soup with ponmo, an inexpensive condiment made from dried beef.
“Fish, meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables and even milk are expensive these days,” said Bello, 56, his thin face etched with worry.
If public health advocates and the Nigerian government have their way, malnourished families in the West African nation soon you will have a simple ingredient available to improve your intake of key vitamins and minerals. Government regulators on Tuesday launched a code of standards to add iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamin B12 to bouillon cubes at minimum levels recommended by experts.
While the standards will be voluntary for producers for now, their adoption could help accelerate progress against deficient diets in essential micronutrientsor what is known in nutrition and public health circles as “hidden hunger.” Fortified bouillon cubes could prevent up to 16.6 million cases of anemia and up to 11,000 deaths from neural tube defects in Nigeria, he said. a new report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Regardless of economic status or income level, everyone uses seasoning cubes,” Bello said as she unwrapped and dropped one into her melon soup.
Making do with smaller portions and less nutritious food is common among many Nigerian families, according to a recent. government survey on dietary intake and micronutrients. The survey estimated that 79% of Nigerian families are food insecure.
The climate crisis, which has seen extreme heat and unpredictable rainfall patterns hit agriculture in the troubled Sahel region of Africa, will worsen the problem, with several million children It is expected to experience growth problems due to malnutrition between now and 2050, according to the Gates Foundation report published on Tuesday.
“Agricultural lands are destroyed, you have a shortage of food, the system is broken, which leads to inflation that makes it difficult for people to access food, including animal proteins,” said Augustine Okoruwa, a nutrition expert at Helen Keller International, highlighting. the link between malnutrition and climate change.
The dietary deficiencies of the micronutrients that the government wants to add to the bouillon cubes have already caused a public health crisis in Nigeria, including a high prevalence of anemia in Nigeria. women of childbearing ageneural tube defects in infant children and stunted growth among children, according to Okoruwa.
Helen Keller International, a New York-based nonprofit that works to address the causes of blindness and malnutrition, has partnered with the Gates Foundation and businesses and government agencies in Africa to promote food fortification.
In Nigeria, recent economic policies such as the cancellation of petrol subsidies are driving the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in generations, further exacerbating food hardships for low-income wage earners who form most of the working population in the country.
In the world, almost 3 billion people are not able to access a healthy diet, 71% of them in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Large-scale production of fortified foods will unlock a new way to “increase micronutrients in the staple foods of low-income countries to build resilience for vulnerable families,” the Gates Foundation said.
Bouillon cubes – those small blocks of evaporated meat or vegetable extracts and seasonings that are typically used to flavor soups and stews – are widely consumed in many African countries, with close to 100% household penetration in countries such as Nigeria , Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cameroon. according to a study by HKI.
That makes the cubes the “cheapest way” to add minerals and vitamins to the diets of millions of people, Okoruwa said.
No Nigerian manufacturer already includes the four micronutrients at recommended levels, but there is industry interest.
Sweet Nutrition, located in Ota, near Lagos in southwestern Nigeria, began adding iron to some of its products in 2017. Marketing director Roop Kumar told The Associated Press that it was a “voluntary exercise” to contribute to public health.
“But we are doing trials and looking at more fortification” with the launch of the new regulatory framework, Kumar said.
Although NASCON Allied Industries, a Nigerian company that produces table and season salt cubes, does not currently make products with any of the four micronutrients, quality control manager Josephine Afolayan said fortification is a priority .
“If we succeed, this would mean that the fortified bouillon seasoning cubes in many Nigerian dishes will also contribute to improving the micronutrient content of the dishes in my country,” Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi, the director of nutrition in the Ministry of Nigeria . Health and Social Welfare, wrote in the report of the Gates Foundation.
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The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce and in the states of the organization of Melinda French Gates, Pivotal Ventures.
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Despite the promise of enriching a product that most people have in their pantries, some challenges have to be addressed. One is the “smear campaign” in a region where science-led interventions in the food sector have sometimes faced resistance from interest groups, Okoruwa said.
Educating people about the benefits of fortified products can help counter any possible misinformation campaign, said Yunusa Mohammed, the head of the food group at the Standards Organization of Nigeria, the regulator. of the government for consumer products.
There is also the need to make fortified cubes accessible to families in difficulty like Bello, where a pile of wood he uses to cook outside on an open flame is stacked against a wall.
“What we can do is to influence the government and the industry on the refunds on the import of raw materials as a public health intervention,” said Mohammed.
Food fortification is not new in Nigeria. Most of the salt consumed in the country is iodized, and products such as corn flour, cooking oil and sugar are fortified with vitamin A by law. But the requirement to add the four vitamins and minerals to the bouillon is the most comprehensive fortification regulation to date.
Although Nigerian companies do not need to enrich their seasoning cubes, experts believe that establishing the standards that producers must follow if they choose will make a difference.
A working group involving representatives of companies, regulatory agencies, research groups and development organizations is in place to accelerate voluntary compliance.
“Ultimately, we will make bouillon fortification mandatory after we see the acceptance of voluntary regulations in the industry,” said Mohammed.
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