Food fortification (FF) is defined as the addition of one or more essential nutrients to a food, whether or not it is normally contained in the food, for the purpose of preventing or correcting a demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the population or specific population groups. Fortification therefore differs from enrichment,which is the process of restoring the nutrients to a food removed during refinement or production. Fortification commonly uses staple foods as vehicles to deliver micronutrients generally lacking or not contained in sufficient concentration in the diet of a population and has been practiced since the 1930s to target specific health conditions such as iodine deficiency through the iodisation of salt, anaemia through the fortification of cereals with iron and vitamins, and neural tube defects
through the fortification of wheat flour with folic acid.