Project Fortify Health

Fortify Health is on a mission to enable access to micronutrient-rich chakki atta in order to reduce and prevent iron-deficiency anaemia. Your contributions are critical to helping us to achieve this mission.

Anaemia is a major public health and economic issue in India. 67.1% of children between 6-59 months of age and 52.2% of pregnant women in India are anaemic (NFHS-5) and both of these figures have increased over the past 5 years (NFHS-4). High rates of anaemia are particularly concerning because anaemia is shown to have a substantial impact on an individual’s quality of life, and particularly affects women and children. Anaemia has been shown to cause impaired physical growth and cognitive development. It can cause tiredness, weakness, dizziness or light-headedness, drowsiness, and shortness of breath.

Food fortification is a cost-effective, evidence-based way to reduce and prevent iron-deficiency anaemia. Food fortification is the addition of essential micronutrients to food staples, such as rice, flour, salt, milk and cooking oil. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has produced regulations governing the fortification of staple foods, including chakki atta.

Fortify Health is helping to implement chakki atta fortification across India, but there are many more people that we could reach. We support both millers and governmental organisations to produce and distribute fortified chakki atta. We have more than 85 partnerships across the country and support enough fortified chakki atta to feed more than 3.2 million people per month. However, there is certainly more to do; we estimate that hundreds of millions of people in wheat-consuming states in India suffer from anaemia.