Food Fortification Officer –
Public Sector Labs

Background/Purpose:

Pakistan has high burden of malnutrition and facing health and economic consequences due to undernutrition. The National Nutrition Survey of Pakistan (2011) found that a majority of children and women of reproductive age were suffer from multiple micronutrient deficiencies.  Large-scale food fortification, the addition of vitamins and minerals to staple foods, is one of the globally recommended strategy to address micronutrients malnutrition.

In order to combat micronutrient malnutrition in Pakistan, a five-year program funded by UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) has been started for fortification ofwheat flour and edible oil/ghee, which gradually will cover all wheat flour and edible oil/ghee mills in Pakistan. The program is being implemented by Mott MacDonald and the Nutrition International (formerly called as the Micronutrient Initiative) in collaboration with key government departments at National and Provincial level and with industry associations like Flour Mills Association (PFMA) and Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA).  The program is providing support to the industry to adequately fortify wheat flour and edible oil/ghee; to the government to improve food fortification regulatory and enforcement system. The support is also provided to raise awareness on the benefits of the fortified foodand generate evidence to formulate relevant policies to combat micronutrient deficiencies in Pakistan. 

In order to provide support to the government food regulatory bodies to effectively implement fortification standards for edible oil/ghee and wheat flour fortification; the FFP requires the services of the Food Fortification Officer to be posted/deputed at the government/public sector food testing laboratories and perform the following duties.