When one or more nutrients are added to the food, it is known as?

UPRVUNL - 2021

Biochemistry and Nutrition

Easy

Appeared in: UPRVUNL - 2021

Explanation

Food fortification is the process of deliberately adding one or more essential micronutrients (like vitamins and minerals) to a food.
The primary goal is to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk.
This strategy is used to correct or prevent widespread nutrient deficiencies in a population, such as adding iodine to salt to prevent goiter or Vitamin A to oil.

Option A: Food contamination refers to the accidental presence of harmful substances, such as bacteria, viruses, chemicals, or physical objects, making the food unsafe. It is unintentional and harmful, unlike fortification which is intentional and beneficial.
Option B: Food adulteration is the illegal and intentional act of lowering food quality by adding inferior substances (e.g., water to milk) or removing valuable ingredients to increase profit. It degrades quality, whereas fortification enhances it.
Option C: Food abstraction is a specific type of adulteration where a nutritious component of the food is removed (e.g., skimming fat from milk). This action reduces nutritional value, which is the opposite of fortification.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Food quality and nutritional enhancement strategies as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
Nurses, especially in community health, play a key role in educating families about the importance of fortified foods (e.g., iodized salt, vitamin A-fortified oil) to prevent deficiency diseases like goiter and xerophthalmia.
Understanding these terms helps nurses identify potential causes of foodborne illnesses (from contamination) or malnutrition (from adulteration/abstraction) in patients.
What if? If a nutrient is added back to a food to replace what was lost during processing (e.g., adding B vitamins back to white flour), it is more specifically called 'enrichment', which is a type of fortification.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the key action in the question stem: 'nutrients are added to the food'.
Analyze the meaning of this action. Adding nutrients is a positive action aimed at improving the food's quality.
Evaluate each option based on this analysis. 'Contamination', 'adulteration', and 'abstraction' are all negative terms related to decreasing food quality or safety.
The term 'fortification' means to strengthen or improve, which directly aligns with the action of adding nutrients.
Select the option that describes the positive enhancement of food with nutrients.

Concept Tested & Keywords

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