What are the Principles of Nutritionally Enhancing Products?

According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), fortification is the practice of intentionally increasing the amount of a necessary nutrient (e.g. vitamins, minerals, including trace elements) in a food in order to improve its nutritional value and to provide health benefits to the population at a minimum health risk (L. Allen et al., 2006). Fortification can involve enriching a product with a specific ingredient, regardless of whether it is naturally present or not. The following types of fortification are distinguished: - compensatory - applies to products in which large amounts of nutrients are lost during the production process or storage. Mineral ingredients are added to compensate for these losses; - intervention - aims to prevent or compensate for a deficiency of a specific ingredient in the population; - improved - is used to enhance the nutritional properties and attractiveness of a product, as well as to make it more similar to its natural counterpart. Fortification can take place on a large scale (enrichment of products that are generally available and traditionally used by the entire population), targeted (enrichment of products intended for specific target groups) or marketing-oriented (enrichment of products to increase their attractiveness through quality improvement). In addition, a distinction can be made between obligatory fortification (when the enrichment of food is mandatory; this is regulated by the laws of the respective country) and voluntary fortification (when the decision to enrich a product is left to the manufacturer, who must also comply with legal regulations in case of such a decision).