Anaemia control: lessons from the flour fortification programme.

OBJECTIVES: Anaemia is an important public health problem in Iran; therefore, a programme of flour fortification with iron was launched in two pilot provinces. The present study was conducted in January 2009 to evaluate the effectiveness and process of this programme. STUDY DESIGN: A 'before-and-after study' was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the flour fortification programme, and the process of the programme was evaluated using a cross-sectional study. METHODS: To evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, blood haemoglobin and ferritin levels were measured in sample populations from Bushehr and Golestan provinces. The target population was women aged 15-49 years. Iron content was measured in samples of flour and bread to evaluate the flour fortification process in these two national pilot provinces. RESULTS: The total study population was 600 women from Bushehr province and 652 women from Golestan province. Similar trends were found in the indicators of anaemia/iron deficiency among the women studied in both provinces. The flour fortification programme only appears to have had a beneficial effect on ferritin levels (iron deficiency) in the two provinces. The prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia before and after the intervention did not differ significantly in either province. Interestingly, the prevalence of anaemia (low haemoglobin) was significantly higher after the intervention in women from both provinces. The coverage of fortified flour and bread was 90% and 98.7% in Bushehr province, and 94.1% and 95% in Golestan province, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In areas where anaemia is not mainly due to iron deficiency, an iron fortification programme might decrease the prevalence of iron deficiency without affecting the prevalence of anaemia.

Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate preservatives in Iranian doogh.

Sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate are two common preservatives used in Iran, yet use of these preservatives in doogh (Iranian dairy-based drink) is forbidden according to national standards. The aim of this study was to consider the presence of these preservatives in doogh by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection (HPLC-UV). The method was performed using a C18 column and detection at 225 nm. The mobile phase contained ammonium acetate buffer (pH = 4.2) and acetonitrile (80:20 v/v). The survey included 130 samples of doogh for identification and quantification of the named preservatives. All samples contained sodium benzoate, but potassium sorbate was detected in only 13% of them. The means of benzoate and sorbate were 21.3 ± 2.7 and 13.3 ± 39.6 mg kg(-1), respectively. The limits of detection were 2 and 40 ng g(-1) for benzoate and sorbate, respectively. Results indicate that sodium benzoate may occur in doogh naturally.