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What is the meaning of fortified flour?
Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.
How do you make fortified flour?
As nutrient loss occurs during milling, nutrients are added to flour in amounts equal to those present before processing to make enriched flour. Fortified flour is made by adding nutrients in excess to quantities lost during milling, or additional nutrients are added to improve its nutritive value.
Is all flour fortified?
Flour ‘fortification’: the current situtation At one time, the addition of chalk to bread was officially recognised as adulteration and banned by law: today, in the name of ‘fortification’, it is mandatory in almost all loaves in the UK.
Is fortified wheat flour good for you?
Fortification doesn’t make them inherently healthy or good for you. Many younger children are also at risk of overdosing on some added vitamins, according to a report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
What vitamins is flour fortified with?
Mandatory fortification of flour The Bread and Flour Regulations (1998) specify that four vitamins and minerals must be added to all white and brown flour. These are calcium, iron, thiamine (Vitamin B1) and niacin (Vitamin B3).
Is all flour in the UK fortified?
Some foods are fortified by law – for example in the UK, white and brown flour are fortified with a range of vitamins (see above). Other foods are fortified on a voluntary basis (e.g. breakfast cereals).
Why fortified flour is bad?
In The Mindspan Diet, Harvard Medical School geneticist Dr Preston Estep makes the case that consuming too much iron through fortified foods or supplements can be dangerous, especially for people aged over 40, and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
How does fortified flour differ from regular flour?
Flour varieties are produced by milling and combining different parts and types of wheat grain. As nutrient loss occurs during milling, nutrients are added to flour in amounts equal to those present before processing to make enriched flour. Fortified flour is made by adding nutrients in excess to quantities lost…
Is there folic acid in fortified wheat flour?
By contrast, fortified flour may contain folic acid in amounts that exceed those present in whole-wheat flour. Calcium, a nutrient that is not naturally present in wheat kernels or whole-wheat flour, is another nutrient that may be present in fortified flour.
Why is white wheat flour fortified in the UK?
Fortified Flour and The Bread and Flour Regulations 2012. By statute any white wheat flour that is milled in the UK has to have calcium carbonate, iron, thiamine/Vitamin B1 and Nicotinic acid added. After the war the government decided that white wheat flour needed the same vitamins as wholemeal flour.
How is flour fortification done in the milling process?
The principle of flour fortification is to blend some amount of flour with vitamin and mineral pre-mix before mixing it with the remaining flour in a continuous mixer. Micronutrients in the form of a premix are added through a volumetric feeder located towards the end of the milling process.