The Chamber of Milling, a body representing the maize and flour industry, has come out in support of moves by Government to enrich the staple foods of South Africans, such as maize meal, bread flour and possibly sugar despite concerns over the cost implications.

Government has indicated that it was considering enriching staple foods, following the finding of a survey that one in five children between the ages of 1 and 9 years is stunted.

Hilton Zunckel, financial manager of the Chamber of Milling and a representative on the government’€™s fortification task team said industry backed the move as government’€™s decision was backed by sound research and the fact that the health department “isn’t shooting from the hip”. He said Government had adopted a consultative approach.

Zunckel said research showed that vitamin A and iron fortification in maize meal and wheat flour at levels of between 25% and 33% over an approximate five-year period could prevent one out of four childhood deaths, lower maternal deaths by one third, increase the working capacity of the labour force by 40%, raise the population IQ by 10 to 15 points and increase the GDP by 5% at a cost of 0.3%.

According to Zunckel, with final decisions yet to be made, fortification would include Vitamin A at 33% of recommended daily allowance (RDA), iron at 25% RDA, and a multivitamin premix ‘€“ including riboflavin, folic acid, zinc and niacin.

He said the milling industry was putting its full co-operation behind this programme, with the proviso that the fortification in no way affected the taste and colour profiles of its products.

To this end, sensory and stability evaluation trials of fortified products were being conducted at the CSIR, which included expert and consumer tasting panels.

Zunckel pointed out that the financing of the fortification still needed to be finalised. He said the task team’€™s research showed that the fortification would cost about R17 per ton for both wheat and flour, or about 3% of the cost structure.

This figure takes into account the cost of monitoring the programme. “We can’€™t have legislation without being able to police it as there would be a risk of some mills ignoring the legislation and continuing to produce unfortified products,” Zunckel said.The Chamber estimated that “bush millers” ‘€“ small independent farmer/millers ‘€“ represented as much as 10% to 15% of the market and probably operated in the poorest areas of the country, where fortification was most needed.

Monitoring of fortification practices in the mills in these areas would be essential for the success of the programme.Zunckel said industry’€™s concern on the pricing issue was that the cost of fortification should not be passed on to its consumers. “We’€™re feeding the poorest of the poor. Any price increase, no matter how small, usually means that our customers eat less food.

“Over the past couple of years we’€™ve had a stagnant consumption of maize and a decrease in the consumption of flour. While minor reasons can be ascribed to this ‘€“ such as the increase in the consumption of other staples including rice, potatoes and pasta, as well as the reduction in the official mass of bread which means the same number of loaves are being produced using less flour ‘€“ we’€™ve concluded that the main consumer of staple foods in this country is in a bad way financially. The general improvement in the economy, the drop in interest rates and lowering of tax hasn’€™t yet impacted on these people. “The industry is under stress and it’€™s attempting to take out costs and rationalise capacities.

“So while a R17/t increase may be insignificant for some market sectors, for our industry it could be disastrous,” he said Zunckel said that government had yet to make its own position on fortification costing clear to the task team, where it will be taken up for further discussion and possible negotiation.

Industry has requested an implementation period of six months following legislation, to give the mills time to purchase and install dosing equipment and change its product labelling to reflect the fortification.