Tajikistan has reportedly put ban on importing non-fortified food products, including Kazakh non-fortified flour. Tajik lawmakers consider that the flour that is prohibited from sale in Kazakhstan is being sold in Tajikistan at a higher price. According to them, consumption of this flour could be detrimental to the health.
On June 7, Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament (Majlisi Oli) endorsed the bill on providing the population with enriched food products.
This law, in particular, provides for putting ban on producing, importing and selling non-enriched wheat flour and other non-enriched foods.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says the main purpose of the law is to prevent import of low-quality wheat flour into the country.
Tajik lawmakers, in particular, noted that the non-fortified flour that is prohibited from sale in Kazakhstan is being sold in Tajikistan at a higher price. They noted that consumption of this flour could be detrimental to the health.
Kazakhstan provides the bulk of Tajikistan’s grain and flour imports.
An enriched food is a product to which nutrients have been added. Typically, the added nutrients were present in the food in its original form but were removed at some point during processing. White bread is an example of an enriched food because certain vitamins are added after the bleaching process depletes them.
Enriched flour is flour with specific nutrients returned to it that have been lost while being prepared. These restored nutrients include iron and B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine). Calcium may also be supplemented. The purpose of enriching flour is to replenish the nutrients in the flour to match the nutritional status of the unrefined product. This differentiates enrichment from fortification, which is the process of introducing new nutrients to a food.
