Sugar Fortification: Possibilities and Future Prospects

Abstract

In today’s frenzied life, the importance of nutritious balanced diet has lost its karma (significance). Several food processing industries have seen a drastic change in the demand and supply of various products in the market. The rising consciousness among the consumers with a view to ‘stay fit’ has led to several changes in their dietary patterns. In pursuit of eating healthy and consuming less calories in their diet, consumers often make wrong decisions, e.g. while overestimating the calorie content of sugar, they fail to acknowledge the fact that other carbohydrates and fats provide the same amount of calories or even more. Therefore, there is a greater need for awareness and taking up essential measures for maintaining the nutritional profile of food products, sugar in particular. As sugar being one of the staple food, consumed by almost every individual, and India being one of the largest producers and consumers of sugar, enriching sugar with micronutrients is a promising approach to overcome the controversies which have arisen about sugar over the last few years. One such approach could be fortification of sugar. This initiative would not only help the sugar sector to diversify its resources for value addition but would also help in providing the required micronutrients to the common masses so as to fulfil their RDA (recommended dietary allowance) requirement which might not be achieved through one’s normal diet.