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 Is food fortification positive for the health of Australians?Introduction:  Fortification is defined by the Codex Alimentarius 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 has been practiced since the 1930s to target specific health conditions such as iodine insufficiency through the iodization of salt, anemia through the fortification of grains with iron and vitamins, and neural tube defects through the fortification of wheat flour with folic acid.The debate discusses if food fortification is positive for the health of Australians. It’s to discuss if food fortification is positive or negative for all the people. I will say that food fortification is positive for the health of people living in underdeveloped, developing and developed countries because scientists say that food fortification with nutrients could help save lives and it has many advantages such as its generally socially acceptable, requires minimal changes in food habits and usually costs less than 2% of the cost of unfortified food. Folic Acid Fortification of Wheat Flour: ChileNeural Tube Defects (NDTs) is the primary congenital deformity to be preventable through general health measure such as food fortification with folic acid. In Chile, a team of academics and program planner from the Ministry of Health-including people from the local factory industry identified the folic acid fortification of wheat flour as a promising method for the increase in folic acid intake in population. At that point, beginning at January 2000, the Chilean Ministry of Health legislated to add folic acid to wheat flour (2.2 mg/kg) to lessen the risk of NTDs. 751 women of low financial status of childbearing age with at least one child (and no family history of NTD) visiting three outpatient clinics (Alejandro del Río, La Granja and La Faena) in Santiago, Chile. They were studied from October to December 1999 (before fortification) and assessed again in October to December 2000 (after fortification). In Chile, 98.9% of deliveries occur in institutional settings, and 80% of them under the National Health Public System. In every medical clinic either a neonatologist or registered nurse has been selected and trained by the research team to revise all births, to register and to describe NTD (anencephaly, encephalocele, and spina bifida). Preliminary outcomes show a reduction of 40% in the rates on NTDs from the pre-fortification period (1999-2000) to post-fortification period (2001-June 2002). Fortification of wheat flour with folic acid is effective in preventing NTDs in Chile.Association of neural tube defects (NDT) and folic acid food fortification in CanadaNumerous females don’t get folic acid supplements before conception. Accordingly, most of Canada’s oat grain products were being fortified with folic acid by January 1998, along these lines giving an additional 0·1–0·2 mg day by day of dietary folate to the Canadian people. The effect of supplementation on prevalence of open NDT in the province of Ontario was surveyed. Among 336 963 female who went under maternal serum screening over 77 months, the prevalence of open NDT decreased from 1·13 per 1000 pregnancies before fortification to 0·58 per 1000 pregnancies thereafter. At a population level, folic acid food fortification is related with an articulated decrease in open (NDT).Positive impact of Vitamin D Food FortificationIn year 2001, Lamberg Allardt exhibited a potential general medical problem of lacking nutrient D status in healthy grown-ups in Finland. This deficiency emerged from a combination of an absence of dermal synthesis of Vitamin D3 during the cold season due to lack of UVB irradiation and decreased dietary nutrient D consumption. later, a nationally representative test of Finnish grown-ups ≥30 y which was directed from 2000 to 2001, and its development, which was led from 2011 to 2012. The research comprised of a sum of 9922 individuals, of whom 8028 were matured ≥30 y. The study included surveys, interviews, and a far-reaching wellbeing examination. The cooperation rate of the wellbeing examination was 85%. When analyzing the impact of fortification, liquid milk items were concentrated. The mean increase was S-25(OH) in daily fluid milk. This examination of the temporal changes in vitamin D status in the Finnish grown-up population indicated significant improvement in Vitamin D status in both male and female and gives, the first prospective evidence at the population level of the advantages of the vitamin D food fortification strategy. Although food fortification research has been a lot successful in many countries, but one of the researches done in Gippsland to evaluate the iodine status among a group of pregnant women was not successful. Research of 86 pregnant women (at ≥ 28 weeks’ development) was done at antenatal care hospitals or private obstetrician centers over the Gippsland district of Victoria, Australia. It was commenced from 13 January 2009 to 17 February 2010. The pregnant women were required to intake iodine fortified breads and use supplements containing iodine. But because iodine necessities during pregnancy were much higher, the supplements that were provided to the women was not enough. The women were bit concerned and were in doubt about the fortification program. And hence had to be given iodine education and were encouraged either to intake iodine rich foods or to intake appropriate supplements.  Conclusion: So to sum it up food fortification is positive for the health of Australian people because the research done in Chile, Canada, Finland provides a positive outcome of how Neural Tube Defects (NDTs), deficiency of Vitamin D were prevented from half of the population. Numerous research were done some were a big success whereas some were a failure, but this proves that food fortification could be a source of solution to people in underdeveloped or developing countries to prevent different diseases and to lead a healthy life.  ReferencesBlackboard Learn. (2019). Retrieved from <https://laureate-au.blackboard.com/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_67037_1&content_id=_7179317_1.> [Accessed 14 Apr. 2019]Hertrampf, E., & Cortes, F. (2004). Folic Acid Fortification of Wheat Flour: Chile. Nutrition Reviews, 62, S44-S48, <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2004.tb00074.x.> [Accessed 20 Apr. 2019]Jääskeläinen, T., Itkonen, S., Lundqvist, A., Erkkola, M., Koskela, T., & Lakkala, K. et al. (2017). The positive impact of general vitamin D food fortification policy on vitamin D status in a representative adult Finnish population: evidence from an 11-y follow-up based on standardized 25-hydroxyvitamin D data. The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, <https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.116.151415.> [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019] Rationale and elements of a successful food-fortification programme. (2019). Retrieved from <http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/food/V192e/ch02.html.> [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019]Rahman, A., Savige, G., Deacon, N., Chesters, J., & Panther, B. (2019). Urinary iodine deficiency in Gippsland pregnant women: the failure of bread fortification. Retrieved from <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb02953.x.> [Accessed 26 Apr. 2019](2019). Retrieved from <http://web1.sph.emory.edu/users/hpacho2/FolicAcidNutritionBulletinManuscript/Ray_2002.pdf.> [Accessed 20 Apr. 2019]