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What is it called when you add vitamins to a food?
Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) to food. It can be carried out by food manufacturers, or by governments as a public health policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population.
What is it called when vitamins are added to processed grains?
An enriched food means that nutrients that were lost during processing are added back in. Many refined grains are enriched. Wheat flour, for example, may have folic acid, riboflavin, and iron added back in after processing. This is intended to restore its original vitamin levels.
What is the addition of nutrients?
The addition of nutrients to food means the addition of one or more nutrients, typically vitamins and/or minerals, to a food product during the manufacturing process. A food with vitamins added is commonly referred to as ‘fortified with vitamins’.
What is the scientific definition of vitamin?
A vitamin is an organic molecule (or a set of molecules closely related chemically, i.e. vitamers) that is an essential micronutrient which an organism needs in small quantities for the proper functioning of its metabolism.
Why are vitamins added to food?
To enrich staple foods with nutrients Nutrients are added to some food products in order to simply make the product a more valuable source of nutrients. For example, Vitamin A and D must be added to margarine by law, so it matches the nutrients in butter.
Why do they add vitamins to cereal?
Fortified foods contain added vitamins and minerals that aren’t naturally present in them. Fortification is meant to improve people’s levels of particular nutrients and is common for foods that adults and children typically eat, such as grains, milk, and juice.
What is meant by fortified cereals?
They can also be consumed in fortified foods, which are foods to which extra nutrients have been added. For example, your breakfast cereal may be fortified with iron, the glass of milk you have with lunch likely has vitamin D added to it, and your evening bowl of pasta could be fortified with folic acid.
Why are vitamins and minerals added to food?
Your body needs certain minerals to build strong bones and teeth and turn the food you eat into energy. As with vitamins, a healthy balanced diet should provide all the minerals your body needs to work properly. Essential minerals include calcium, iron and potassium.
Why are vitamins added to flour?
Why is flour fortified? White flour was first fortified with calcium in the UK in 1941. This was introduced to prevent rickets which had been found to be common in women joining the Land Army. Fortifying flour was a means of providing more calcium in the diet at a time when dairy products were scarce.