A government advisory panel in the United Arab Emirates, is considering the possibility of fortifying flour with iron in a bid to stave off the threat of anaemia caused by iron deficiency.
The National Committee for Food Safety is considering whether iron supplements should be added to flour on the recommendation of the World Health Organisation, Dr Juma Bilal Fairouz, director of the Disease Control department at the Ministry of Health, told the Gulf News newspaper.
The move seems a little excessive, given the fact that there is no particular problem with anaemia among pregnant women and schoolchildren - the groups most susceptible to the problem. "Nevertheless, the subject should not be neglected," Bilal told the paper.
Bilal also said that better education - informing consumers of how to change their diets in order to fight iron deficiency - was likely to be more effective than iron supplementation. "For example, drinking tea directly after a meal interferes with the absorption of iron from the food eaten. This is quite a well-known theory. There is no harm in drinking tea in the gap between two meals," he claimed.
"Similarly, eating egg-white could also interfere with iron absorption. Emphasis should be laid on the intake of large amounts of dark green vegetables."