Strengthening African Processors of Fortified Foods Project-TechnoServe, Arlington, VA, USA.
iGate Consulting, Lagos, Nigeria.
Food Nutr Bull. 2023 Sep;44(1_suppl):S74-S84. doi: 10.1177/03795721221132610. Epub 2022 Nov 9.
Sustaining large-scale and good-quality food fortification requires strategies that incentivize food processors to invest in and consistently meet national food fortification standards where they exist. A standardized Micronutrient Fortification Index (MFI) piloted in Nigeria has provided a ranking of fortified branded products for each participating company, based on a score aggregating the effectiveness and efficiency of the company's systems and levels of product fortification. The MFI has demonstrated the significance of brands as a focal point for investment and industry accountability in food fortification and the power of harnessing the competitive nature of businesses to drive their food fortification performance. The initiative started with a pilot consisting of well-known brands of 4 companies and has since expanded participation to 15 companies, representing 31 brands, having completed the first entire ranking cycle. The publicly listed brands on the Index now cover approximately 80% of the flour milling market, 40% of the edible oils market, and 88% of the sugar market in Nigeria, reaching an estimated 134 million people in the country in 2022 according to analysis by TechnoServe Supporting African Processors of Fortified Foods (SAPFF) program in Nigeria. The data inputs are made through company-owned digital portals, and the results are published on a secure, web-based public portal which also serves as a gateway for stakeholders to access related information on micronutrient fortification and food quality (https://technoserve-mfi.web.app/). The ultimate aim of the MFI is to serve as a leverage for private sector efforts to both digitalize quality assurance and business processes linked to industrial automation and to harness their competitiveness through voluntary participation in the Index to drive improved food fortification performance based on industry best practices and quality benchmarks.
维持大规模和高质量的食品强化需要激励食品加工商投资并始终符合国家食品强化标准的策略，这些标准在存在的地方。在尼日利亚试点的标准化微量营养素强化指数 (MFI) 根据参与公司的系统的有效性和效率以及产品强化水平，为每个参与公司的强化品牌产品提供了排名。MFI 表明了品牌作为食品强化投资和行业问责的焦点的重要性，以及利用企业竞争性质来提高其食品强化绩效的力量。该倡议最初由 4 家公司的知名品牌试点组成，此后已将参与范围扩大到 15 家公司，涵盖 31 个品牌，完成了第一个完整的排名周期。该指数上的上市公司品牌现在约占尼日利亚面粉碾磨市场的 80%、食用油市场的 40%和食糖市场的 88%，根据 TechnoServe 在尼日利亚支持强化食品加工商（SAPFF）计划的分析，到 2022 年，该指数覆盖了该国约 1.34 亿人。数据输入是通过公司拥有的数字门户完成的，结果发布在一个安全的基于网络的公共门户上，该门户也是利益相关者访问有关微量营养素强化和食品质量的相关信息的门户（https://technoserve-mfi.web.app/）。MFI 的最终目标是利用私营部门的努力，将与工业自动化相关的质量保证和业务流程数字化，并通过自愿参与指数来利用其竞争力，根据行业最佳实践和质量基准来提高食品强化绩效。
