However, increasing iron intake will not be successful in eliminating iron-deficiency anaemia unless the diet is also low in iron-absorption inhibitors or contains en- hancers of iron absorption and utilisation. The major in- hibitor, phytic acid, can be readily degraded in cereal and legume foods by the addition of exogenous phytases ei- ther during food processing (Hurrell et al. 1992) or dur- ing digestion (Sandberg et al. 1996), increasing iron ab- sorption dramatically. In the same way, muscle tissue, through the action of the cysteine-containing peptides formed on digestion, improves iron absorption from ce- real-based meals (Cook et al. 1997).