New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) The government on Thursday said nearly 6.83 lakh tonnes of fortified rice has been distributed under the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the second phase beginning April this year.

Fortified rice is made as per the standards fixed by the food regulator FSSAI which has prescribed blending rice with three micro-nutrients -- iron, folic acid and vitamin B12. It is a cost-effective step towards nutritional security and helps fight anaemia and malnutrition in the country.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address last year said the government aims to distribute fortified rice via government schemes by 2024.

The first phase began in October 2021, under which fortified rice was distributed through Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman-PM POSHAN.

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According to the food ministry, nearly 6.83 lakh tonnes of fortified rice has been distributed by states and Union Territories under the second phase which started from April 1, 2022.

Around 52 per cent of the districts have lifted the foodgrains in Phase II.

A total of 151 districts in 24 states have already lifted fortified rice under PDS, it said in a statement.

In the first phase covering ICDS and PM-POSHAN, nearly 17.51 lakh tonnes of fortified rice has been distributed so far in states since implementation in October last year.

Meanwhile, the production capacity to blend fortified rice in mills has increased to 60 lakh tonnes now when compared with 13.67 lakh tonnes as on August 15, 2021. The number of mills having blending infra has increased to 6,000 from 2,690 a year ago.

The annual manufacturing capacity of Fortified Rice Kernel (FRK) has increased up to 3.5 lakh tonnes now from 0.9 lakh tonnes in August last year. Even the number of labs accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for testing fortificants has increased to 30.

According to the ministry, state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies have been procuring fortified rice since 2020-21 and nearly 145.93 lakh tonnes of fortified rice have been procured so far.

The ministry has also developed Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for adherence of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) protocols on production and distribution of fortified rice and FRKs.

Food safety standard regulator FSSAI has drafted standards for FRK, pre-mix and provided the direction to all the stakeholders for operationalisation of draft standards with immediate effect.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has also notified the standards for FRK, pre-mix (vitamins and minerals), machineries (blenders, extruders and other allied machineries etc.)

Government think-tank NITI Aayog is also working with different stakeholders for concurrent evaluation on the impact of rice fortification initiative.

Efforts are being made to educate the public about the nutritional benefits of fortified rice.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)