Field Story
2022: celebrating milestones, innovations and making a difference globally
December 30, 2022
In theory, the combination of iodine and iron in salt can simultaneously combat iodine deficiency disorders and iron deficiency anaemia, which together affect more than one-third of the world’s population. However, iodine compounds have shown to be unstable in the presence of iron and other salt impurities. The key to successful double fortification of salt is finding ways to prevent iron and iodine interactions either through the use of stabilizers and/or through encapsulating one or both of the micronutrients. This paper describes the product development process, with focus on pilot and commercial scale production, of an iron premix consisting of encapsulated ferrous fumarate. This paper also successfully demonstrates the feasibility of using “fluidized bed technology” for large scale production of double fortified salt containing iodine and iron.