Rice Fortification Technology

Micronutrient malnutrition has always remained a public health concern globally, especially in developing countries. It involves the inadequate intake of essential vitamins and minerals, leading to deficiency diseases among the vulnerable population. Food fortification is a sustainable and widely accepted strategy for fortifying staple foods with micronutrients to address this issue. Among different staple foods, nearly half of the global population consumes rice, providing unique opportunities to be a vehicle for desired micronutrients. Therefore, this chapter comprehensively explores the process of fortified rice kernels (FRK) and fortified rice production. It begins with a review of the need for rice fortification and delves into the formulation and specification for broken rice, vitamin-mineral premix, water, and their role in manufacturing the FRK. Three rice fortification technologies, viz., coating, dusting, and extrusion, are used for manufacturing the FRK, among which extrusion is identified to produce a stable product and is the most scalable process, making it necessary for commercial production of fortified rice in large quantities. This chapter discusses briefly the FRK production process, which includes unit operations such as grinding, mixing, extrusion, drying, polishing, and packaging. Moreover, the specifications of the FRK are discussed, focusing on the micronutrient content. This chapter highlights the blending process to produce fortified rice, packaging and storage guidelines, quality assurance, and the supply chain for FRK and FR. Finally, it discusses the issues and challenges, such as technological limitations in producing the FRK and programmatic hurdles in implementing fortification at scale.