New Delhi, June 15
Realising the health risks of iodine and iron deficiency, the government today reinstated the ban on the sale of non-iodised salt in the country for human consumption and announced that double fortification of salt with iron and iodine would soon be made compulsory.“We are giving two months to manufacturers. The ban on non-iodised salt will be enforced from August 15,” Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said here after a UNICEF-government strategy review meeting on Reproductive and Child Health.
The government had followed salt iodisation programme for 41 years. But following the lifting of the ban in 2000, serious setbacks were seen with consumption of adequately iodised salt falling from 49 per cent of population to only 37 per cent, he told reporters.
Allaying fears of price hike in the wake of ban, the minister said: “It will almost have no impact...There will be only 10 paise per kilogram hike.” The step was not detrimental to small producers as even crystallised salt could be iodised, he said.
Mr Ramadoss said since iron deficiency anemia had emerged as a major killer among mothers and children, the government would soon also make fortification of salt with iron compulsory.
“The National Institute of Nutrition was experimenting with double fortification of salt with iodine and iron. There was a problem of stability and colour,” he said.
— PTI
