The need for fortification and the sociological overtones of fortification are discussed in detail. A striking example of an unproductive type of fortification is shown in the case of baby foods. In the course of a day, a child fed with baby foods and perhaps some weaning foods, receives as much as 109 to 295 per cent of its vitamin requirements. All agricultural raw materials are processed before they can be used as foods. Cereals and pulses are debunked and debranned or polished.
Milk is pasteurized or boiled, homogenized, concentrated, or dried.
Fruits, if they are to be processed, are expressed, pasteurized, or concentrated. Meat and meat products, if made into processed products, are heat-processed. In all these processing stages, some portion of the nutrients is destroyed or otherwise lost. Some nutrient loss is inevitable, for the raw foods cannot be consumed or preserved. The term enrichment has been used to signify the act of adding the nutrients that are lost in processing back to the processed food, in such a way that the nutritional value corresponds to that of the unprocessed material.