Iron compounds for food fortification: The development of an essential nutritional strategy for developing countries. A review

摘要

Iron (Fe) deficiency has been recognized as a public health problem due to its health and economic implications. In developing countries like Colombia this deficiency still affects a large part of its population, especially children and pregnant women. Hence the importance of developing strategies such as food fortification with iron to improve the levels of consumption in the population and offset the consequences generated by the lack of this mineral, including mental and motor development, and immune system disorders. In this review, the main concepts of iron food fortification are developed, including the main factors which influence their physiological use, its importance from the nutritional point of view, the technologies used for food fortification and the latest trends in this type of products, such as biofortification and nanotechnology, all this in order to contribute to the research and development of nutritional strategies whose central point is iron deficiency as an strategy of prevention and control.