Fortified Foods vs. Enriched Foods

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between foods that have been “enriched” or “fortified”?

Enriched- This means that the company will add nutrients back into the food that were lost during processing so that the food will meet government nutrition standards.  For example, the parts that make up wheat are:

• Husk- the outermost part of the grain that is not edible
• Bran-the next inner layer that holds many nutrients and fiber
• Endosperm- the next layer that contains all the starch and protein
• Germ- which is essentially the seed.  It holds many vitamins and minerals since it is responsible for growing another wheat plant.

When wheat is processed into flour, wheat is taken apart and its vitamins and minerals are lost, so synthetic vitamins are put back into the product.  This enriching of vitamins is required by law.  In the 1940’s, Congress passed a legislation that requires all refined grains to be enriched with the vitamins that were lost during processing.  This includes white rice, cereals, crackers, pastas, and anything that has processed grains. 

Fortified- This means that synthetic vitamins are added to a food that were not originally even in the food.  The premise behind this is that the only way people will get some of these essential nutrients is to put them into a processed food that people regularly eat.   Otherwise there will be widespread nutritional deficiencies.  Studies that show how vitamins work together are the deciding factor for what vitamins go into what processed food.  Calcium and vitamin D work together, so cow’s milk is fortified with vitamin D.  

The main point I want to make is that both “enriched” and “fortified” are describing a method to put synthetic vitamins that were made in a lab, by man, into a processed food. Good ol’ modern science found a way to MAKE vitamins in a lab.   If those synthetic vitamins were not added to the processed food, then the “food” would have little to no nutritional value. 

Do you think those synthetic vitamins have the same health benefits as the natural occurring vitamins in whole foods? 

 Wait!  Don’t answer that until you read my blog post tomorrow called:  Synthetic vs. Naturally Occurring Vitamins.