Government is set to institutionalize the purchase of fortified maize flours to enable students at institutions of learning to eat food rich in minerals and nutrients. This was disclosed by the head of Nutrition programme at the Ministry of Health Dr. Jacent Asiimwe while speaking at the Fortification Assessment meeting held in Kampala, adding that government was willing to put a tax holiday for milling companies producing fortified food.
Dr. Asiimwe said that if consumption of fortified maize flour is made mandatory to institutions like schools, police, prison and the army this would help the people in these institutions to have minerals and nutrients resistant to diseases. She said that the ministry of health will soon adopt such a programme to enable students eat fortified maize flour to prevent malnutrition. The doctor asked mothers to feed their children with fortified food to reduce on the possibility of their children getting diseases related to poor feeding. She also added that the ministry of health is to engage the small maize millers in the country to interest them to produce maize flour with minerals and nutrients that prevent diseases in the human bodies.
The head of Makerere university food science technology Prof. Archileo Kaaya explained the need for taking food with minerals.
The survey on fortified food carried out 2015 in by the Ministry of health, Global Allience for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Makerere University show that fortified food is highly taken in urban areas and low in rural area. It is justifiable that Fortified food is not highly taken by rural people because it’s expensive and most people in villages are used to grinding their maize and no minerals and nutrients like iron and vitamin A are added to it.
