A Novel Approach to Optimize Vitamin D Intake in Belgium through Fortification Based on Representative Food...

Area of Science:

• Nutritional Science
• Public Health
• Food Science

Background:

• Food fortification is a key strategy for enhancing population-wide vitamin D intake.
• Selecting appropriate food vehicles is crucial for equitable benefit distribution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement an optimization model for selecting food vehicles and fortification levels for vitamin D.
• To ensure adequate vitamin D intake while maintaining safety across the population.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Belgian Food Consumption Survey 2014 data (n=3200, ages 3-64).
• Modeled 63 food fortification combinations across six vehicle types: bread, breakfast cereals, fats and oils, fruit juices, milk and milk beverages, and yogurt and cream cheese.
• Incorporated age-specific requirements and upper intake levels to minimize inadequate or excessive vitamin D intake, considering feasibility and healthiness.

Main Results:

• Multiple food vehicle combinations substantially decreased inadequate vitamin D intake prevalence from 92-96% to below 2%.
• Fortification of milk and milk beverages and bread with 6.9 μg vitamin D/100 kcal emerged as the optimal scenario.

Conclusions:

• The developed optimization model effectively identifies fortification strategies to improve vitamin D status in the Belgian population.
• The model provides a framework for managing risks of inadequate and excessive intake and can be adapted for other micronutrients and populations.