Illustrative image (Photo: suatangchieucao.com)Last week, the government issued decree 09/2016/ND-CP to introduce iodine,iron, zinc and vitamin A as compulsory elements that need to be included inVietnamese food.
The decree on food fortification, which took effect from March 15 this year,regulates that the four micronutrients should meet national technical standardsand regulations on food safety.
Salt fortified with iodine, iron and zinc must be added to wheat flour, whilevegetable oil that contains soybean oil, coconut oil, canola oil or peanut oilis required to have vitamin A – excluding vegetable oil used in industrial foodprocessing, according to the decree.
In the meeting, which was attended by representatives for the GovernmentOffice, food processing businesses, the World Health Organisation – Vietnam (WHO),UNICEF, and scientists, Tran Quang Trung, the association’s President, raisedhis concern that the regulation on adding iodine to food will causedifficulties for milk production businesses.
“Iodine is an oxidizable substance and is changeable during food processing. Soit will change the colour and smell of milk products”, said Trung.
“This means that dairy businesses will suffer”, he said.
Therefore, the Vietnam Dairy Association recommended that the iodine supplementshould be regulated to seasoning products only.
Meanwhile, President of the Vietnam Association of Food Scienceand Technology Phan Thi Kim said many studies showed that each kind offood contains different levels of iodine, so different processing andpreservation methods will change the iodine levels.
Iodine could change the colour and smell of foods, which is important to customers,Kim said.
“We thought that the addition of iodine should be regulated for specific kindsof food. Businesses will face difficulties if the regulation was applied acrossthe board”, she said.
For example, salt for direct use must be fortified with iodine, but addingiodine to salt for food processing will need the Ministry of Health’s detailedinstructions, she said.
"Each individual has different iodine demands," Kim said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health, WHO and UNICEF representatives affirmed theimportance of iodine for people’s health, especially with the lack ofmicro-nutrition in Vietnam.
Nguyen Huy Quang from the Ministry of Health, said the regulation on addingiodine to salt for food processing is necessary.
According to Quang, thanks to the implementation of the National Programmeon Iodine Deficiency Disorders Control from 1994 to 2005, the rate of childrenaged 8 to 10 afflicted with Basedow’s disease dropped dramatically, while theiodine level across all Vietnamese people reached WHO standards.
However, after the year 2005, when the use of iodine salt became optional, therate of children with Basedow’s disease increased to 9.8 percent, Quang said.
This has become a concern and requires intervention, as recommended by UNICEF,he told the meeting.
“This was the reason behind the decree. The Ministry of Health has carried outseveral meetings to collect opinions from related businesses”, he said.
Recently, the WHO recommended supplementing micro-nutrition in daily meals andfood processing as an effective and economical measure which is used in morethan 100 countries all over the world.
The WHO representative told the meeting that a recent study showed that thechanges in colour and smell of food processed with iodised salt werenegligible.
Dr. Friday Nwaigwe, UNICEF Vietnam’s Head of Child Survival andDevelopment, affirmed the need of fortifying iodine in food in Vietnam toensure physical and mental health for Vietnamese children.
In many nations, using iodised salt in food processing faces obstacles like inVietnam, and the policy requires the support from the business community, hesaid.
In the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked the Ministry of Healthto give detailed instructions to dairy and food processing businesses aboutusing iodised salts.-VNA
VNA
