EDIBLE OIL FORTIFICATION

Since 1953, Fortification of Vanaspati has been mandatory in India. Furthermore, the Government of India has recently made edible oil fortification mandatory. This new directive by the government has been deemed by various industry experts as an important move in addressing the high levels of malnutrition in India. 

While most of the edible oil brands have adopted fortification over the past 15-20 years, skeptics have wondered about oil’s capability to retain the fortified vitamins after being cooked. To address these concerns, the FSSAI (Govt. of India) has published results of various research studies on vitamin retention in oil when subjected to high temperatures. The studies have indicated that when oil was added to rice, beans, pulses etc. and cooked around 90% of Vitamin A was retained even after cooking for 30 minutes. 

Fortification of edible oils with AD2 is now the order of the day with almost all the major national and local brands fortifying their oil. FSSAI has also been mandating fortification and enforcing it across the country. The policymakers are certain that the benefits of fortification of oil across the country will contribute to the eradication of vitamin A and D deficiencies in the next few years.

Fortification necessitates high quality and stable supply of vitamin premixes, which are easily miscible in oil and are stable across the process of blending. At Hexawel, we have been focused on developing best-in-class vitamin premixes to enable hassle free addition with minimal processing. 

Hexamix OF is designed to meet the needs of AD2 fortification in edible oil. Hexamix OF is a stabilized blend of Vitamin A Acetate and Vitamin D2. This is delivered to our customers in 100ml dose for fortification of 5000 Kg of edible oil. We have also worked with some of our customers in delivering a blend of Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 and Vitamin E Acetate. 

Our experience with Hexamix OF has been that of reliability and robustness made possible due to the grade of vitamins used in Hexamix OF. Hexamix OF uses Vitamin A Acetate instead of Vitamin A Palmitate due to Vitamin A Acetate’s higher stability. (Most pharmaceutical formulations use Vitamin A Acetate instead of Vitamin A Palmitate for the same reason)

We have had the opportunity to work with some of the large oil refining companies in the southern part of India with Hexamix OF and other customized fortification solutions. We have also been offering Vitamin A and Vitamin D2 / D3 in separate oil based blends for customers who would like to add the vitamins individually.

We would be glad to hear about your experiences in edible oil fortification and meet your needs with our product offerings.