GAIN, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, is backed by several charities and the UN yet it aims to boost long-term nutrition by creating successful food products that will remain on the market after the initial round of funding.
The initiative, which involves setting up national fortification alliances, training food producers in fortification techniques and supporting marketing campaigns, is likely to benefit the food makers involved and also lift sales of other fortified products.
GAIN has already invested US$38 million in projects that launched fortified soy sauce in China, fish sauce in Vietnam, cottonseed oil in Côte d'Ivoire, wheat flour in Morocco and maize flour in South Africa.
The new programmes, backed by US$20 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will go to countries "where there are large numbers of people affected by malnutrition, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, India and Indonesia," said Jay Naidoo, chair of the GAIN board.
The organisation has not yet decided which countries the grants will go to, but said it will fund at least an additional 10 countries with grants of up to US$3million. Countries are being invited to submit proposals.
"We are particularly keen to make sure that all the programmes we fund reach those at greatest risk of vitamin and mineral deficiences, and prevalence rates of these deficiencies are particularly high in Asia," a GAIN spokeswoman told AP-Foodtechnology.com.
She cited a World Bank report published this month that found that 'the problem is much more severe in South Asia, than in Sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly 50 per cent of children in South Asia are undernourished as compared to about 25 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa'.
Malnutrition is responsible for high rates of child mortality, birth defects, poor intellectual development and reduced productivity. Correcting vitamin A and iron deficiencies alone can help reduce maternal deaths by 20 per cent and decrease child mortality by at least 23 per cent, according to GAIN.
"We are aiming for a realistic target of eliminating vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the next ten years," said executive director Marc Van Ameringen.
GAIN has also been supported by private companies like Coca-Cola, Unilever and Danone and is currently developing business alliances in China, India and Africa.
The total market revenue for vitamin A, C, E and calcium food fortification reached just $46.7 million in six southeast Asian markets during 2005, according to industry analysts Frost & Sullivan.
But sales of these products will grow at an average of 10.1 per cent between 2005 and 2012, claims their report focusing on Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.
Calcium-enriched products will see the fastest growth in this period at a compound annual growth rate of 16.5 per cent. This compares to a mere 1.8 per cent in Europe.