The product is aimed at addressing and eradicating iron deficiency. The launch also marks the long-awaited entry of iron fortified iodised salt in Karnataka - the result of 20 years of research. A kg pack of the product is priced at Rs 20.
"With the launch of Tata Salt Plus in Karnataka and a national rollout into metro and mini metro cities, we also hope to see migration of user base from iodised salt to iron fortified iodised salt," said R Mukundan, MD, Tata Chemicals.
"Being the market leader with about 64 per cent of the market share in the organised national branded salt segment, and with a retail penetration into more than 11 lakh outlets across India. Tata Salt Plus has recently made its entry in markets such as Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Chandigarh," stated Ashvini Hiran, chief operating officer, consumer products business, Tata Chemicals.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), at the national level anaemia has been found amongst 70-80 per cent of the children, 70 per cent of the pregnant women, 55 per cent of the women in general and 25 per cent of the adult men across the population strata. Prevalence of anaemia in India is high because of a low dietary intake and especially, the poor availability of iron.
The iron fortified iodised salt formulation has been developed by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, after more than two decades of research and studies.
According to Dr B Sesikeran, director, NIN, the deficiency of iodine and iron poses serious risks to public health, and food fortification, especially salt fortification, has proved to be one of the most viable solutions to address this issue. "We have developed double fortified salt with the objective of countering both these challenges by leveraging salt, which, as a food product, is consumed across the board, and at the same time it is self-regulatory in terms of intake. NIN also conducted extensive research on the stability, safety, bio-availability and impact of double fortified salt, both in experimental and community situations, and the results have been convincing," he said.
