Billions of people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies that increase mortality, impose lifelong health burdens and hamper productivity and growth. Many countries respond with a mix of interventions, promoting healthy diets alongside measures such as large-scale food fortification (LSFF), which involves adding vitamins and minerals to widely consumed staples. Used well, LSFF can be cost effective. Yet, mandating fortification alone does not get fortified foods to the people who need them. Fragmented rules, unclear mandates, limited co‑ordination, complex licensing, ineffective inspections, unnecessary burdens and underutilised evidence often stand between policy intent and results.
The OECD Good Practice Principles for Regulating Large-Scale Food Fortification show how sound regulatory governance can close that gap. The six Principles span the full policy cycle: using evidence to identify micronutrient gaps and inform policy responses, including LSFF; designing rules for impact; minimising barriers to market access; supervising and monitoring LSFF effectively and efficiently; enhancing compliance through enforcement measures and capacity building; and ensuring policy coherence supports supply and demand for fortified foods.
These Principles, illustrated by practice examples from diverse resource contexts, can help governments build on existing systems to ensure that LSFF frameworks advance nutrition for public health, productivity and growth.
