Saha Amrita, Guariso Daniele, Mbuya Mduduzi N N, Ebata Ayako
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. BN19RE, United Kingdom.
Department of Economics, Jubilee Building, University of Sussex, BN19SL, United Kingdom.
Food Policy. 2021 Oct;104:102143. doi: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102143.
Impact of national food fortification programs is contingent on the extent to which there is compliance with national standards. However, this compliance is often sub-optimal and is not consistently measured. One of the challenges to more regular measurement is an over-reliance on quantitative assessments of micronutrient levels for compliance, which are costly. In resource constrained environments, this contributes to weaknesses in regulatory monitoring. We offer an alternative, systems-based approach to determine compliance, presenting a unique score that can capture firms' compliance behaviour, based on whether and how firms actually carry out stages of the fortification process. The key utility of such a measure being its use to monitor fortification propensity and assess changes in response to interventions. Further, we present an empirical application of this measure, providing novel evidence on firms' compliance towards food fortification regulations in Bangladesh, investigating the institutional and firm-level factors that correlate with compliance behaviour towards food fortification regulations among edible oil and salt producers.
国家食品强化计划的影响取决于符合国家标准的程度。然而，这种合规情况往往不尽人意，且未得到持续监测。更定期进行监测面临的挑战之一是过度依赖对微量营养素水平进行合规性的定量评估，而这种评估成本高昂。在资源有限的环境中，这导致监管监测存在缺陷。我们提供一种基于系统的替代方法来确定合规情况，提出一个独特的分数，该分数可以根据企业是否以及如何实际执行强化过程的各个阶段来反映企业的合规行为。这种衡量方法的关键作用在于用于监测强化倾向并评估对干预措施的反应变化。此外，我们展示了该衡量方法的实证应用，提供了关于孟加拉国企业对食品强化法规合规情况的新证据，调查了与食用油和盐生产商对食品强化法规的合规行为相关的制度和企业层面因素。
