Acceptance of Iron Fortified Rice (I-Rice) in the Philippines to Combat Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA)

摘要

Iron fortification of rice is vital to compensate for the inadequacies of this micronutrient in Filipino diets asmandated by Republic Act No. 8976 entitled “An Act Establishing the Philippines Food FortificationProgram and for Other Purposes” for implementation in November 7, 2004, and the National Food Authoritywas commissioned to fortify rice.Rice is a valuable vehicle for alleviating iron deficiency anemia (IDA), a deficiency which occurs when thedietary intake of iron is insufficient, because of its role as the basic staple food in the Philippines. Rice wasfortified by mixing the regular milled rice with iron rice premix (I-Mix is iron-coated rice containing 1300mg iron per 100 grams) at a ratio of 1:250 consisting of one part I-Mix to 250 parts regular milled rice. Thisratio resulted in an iron fortified rice (I-Rice) containing 1-2 mg iron per 100 grams when cooked.Acceptance of odor, color, flavor and overall quality of I-Rice was evaluated using the home-use test (HUT)protocol in five public elementary schools in the Philippines. A total of 2,442 qualified respondentsparticipated in the survey.The acceptance ratings of I-Rice ranged from 6.9 to 7.4 and was described as “like moderately” using theHedonic scale. Non-parametric test revealed that no significant differences existed among the acceptanceratings. Spearman correlation showed that age, educational attainment, amount of rice consumption andwillingness to buy I-Rice had significant relationship to its acceptance. A significant difference existedbetween gender and overall liking of I-Rice using Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon) Test.Above findings showed that public awareness about the program can influence acceptance of I-Rice, anddeficiency in micronutrients particularly iron can be addressed through food innovation. The information onconsumer acceptance of I-Rice can be used as basis for evaluating government policies and directions foriron fortification of rice.