PATH’s manufactured “grain” adds nutrients to rice
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Editor's note: The Tech Museum of Innovation, one of the country's premier science and technology museums, has awarded PATH a 2009 Tech Award for Ultra Rice. Read more.
PATH has found a way to increase nutrients in the staple food of more than half of the world’s population—and it doesn’t require people to change their purchasing and cooking habits. In fact, when blended with rice and cooked like usual, the Ultra Rice® grains look so much like white rice, it’s hard to tell they are there.
Every bite counts
Micronutrient deficiencies threaten the health, development, and productivity of millions of people worldwide. According to UNICEF and the Micronutrient Initiative, each year:
- Severe iron deficiency anemia results in the death of more than 60,000 young women during pregnancy and childbirth. In the developing world, iron deficiency in 6- to 24-month-olds may impair the mental development of the 40 to 60 percent of children who suffer from it.
- Vitamin A deficiency compromises the immune systems of approximately 40 percent of children under five and causes about 1,000,000 deaths in the developing world.
- Folic acid deficiency is responsible for approximately 200,000 severe birth defects in 80 developing countries.
- Mild to moderate zinc deficiency affects more than a third of people worldwide and compromises growth and immune function in children.
One approach to alleviating malnutrition is fortifying staple foods with micronutrients. On a large scale, food fortification can be cost-effective and sustainable, and it allows people to get more nutritional value from the food they already eat.
To bring fortification to vulnerable rice-consuming communities, PATH developed a manufactured “grain” that can be mixed with rice to provide nutrients the local diet may lack.
Inside the Ultra Rice technology
Ultra Rice holds enormous promise for children like Mahalaxmi and others you’ll meet in this video. |
Ultra Rice grains resemble locally milled rice grains in size, shape, and color, but they are made from rice flour, selected micronutrients, and nutrient-protecting ingredients that are combined and extruded through a rice-shaped mold. When the Ultra Rice grains are blended with white rice—usually in a ratio of about 1 to 100—the result is nearly identical to unfortified rice in smell, taste, and texture.
The technology is ingenious in its ability to protect micronutrients within the manufactured grain. In addition to preventing them from being rinsed away, the Ultra Rice grains preserve sensitive micronutrients from degradation during storage. Currently, there are two formulations of Ultra Rice. One carries vitamin A, and the other can carry iron, thiamin, folic acid, and zinc.
The Ultra Rice technology can be adapted to contain just the nutrients a population needs—and to mimic the look of the local rice. Its versatility allows grains that look like the short-grained rice of China to carry one combination of vitamins and minerals, while grains resembling the longer, thinner rice in Brazil deliver a completely different combination of micronutrients.
From the factory to the bowl
To reach nutritionally vulnerable populations, PATH licenses the Ultra Rice manufacturing technology to select commercial partners. Thus far, we have licensed the technology to manufacturers in Brazil, Colombia, and India.
In the future, we hope to set up regional centers for transferring the Ultra Rice technology to manufacturers and rice millers. These centers would help potential commercial partners better understand the Ultra Rice technology and learn how to use it.
PATH is also supporting the introduction of Ultra Rice into government-sponsored meal programs for school children. We are working with manufacturing partners to supply Ultra Rice to a centralized kitchen located in Vishakhapatnam, India, that provides rice-based meals to 60,000 children each day. Plans are under way to replicate this model in additional kitchens located throughout the region. Similar efforts will soon be under way in Brazil and other areas of Latin America.
There are literally billions of rice consumers in the world who need the nutritional benefits that Ultra Rice products can deliver at low cost. Our goal is to stimulate demand for Ultra Rice and motivate manufacturers to offer Ultra Rice products for commercial sale, ensuring widespread access to high-quality, affordable fortified rice.
Ultra Rice is a registered trademark of Bon Dente International, Inc. in the United States.
Photo: Carib Nelson.
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