PESHAWAR, Aug 18: Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) will launch national project on “Iron fortification of wheat flour” at Nuclear Institute for Food and Agriculture (Nifa) on Tuesday to combat the nation’s most critical nutritional problem of anaemia.

Nifa Director Dr M. Jamil Qureshi, who is organizing the launching ceremony, said in a statement on Sunday that the PAEC will be assisted by nutrition section of the planning and development division, Micro-nutrient Initiative Canada, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, and Pakistan Flour Mills Association in the project.

NWFP Health Minister Dr Mehr Taj Rooghani is expected to inaugurate project.

He said iron deficiency anaemia as indicated by low haemoglobin levels was a problem of serious public health significance in the country.

The project’s first phase is related to uniform iron fortification of wheat flour. One flour mill each at Peshawar, Islamabad and Faisalabad have been assigned the job and provided with micro-feeders by MI Canada.

In the second phase, research and development work to optimize storage and acceptability parameters of the fortified wheat flour will be carried out at the human nutrition group of Nifa.

The third phase will be on the bio-availability of the fortified wheat flour and Dr Rakshanda Bilal of Pinstech will deliver lecture on isotopic studies.

The fourth phase will be community-based efficacy of the iron fortitude wheat flour to be carried out at Nifa under the supervision of Fazal Mehmood and Dr Aurangzeb.—APP