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ZIMBABWE wants to regulate fortification of food, that is making compulsory the additions of micro-nutrients such as vitamins and minerals to foods that lack them, or have had them removed or have had them converted into forms that the body cannot use.

This is common practice around the world; in some countries it is compulsory in others optional but recommended.

Many international food brands now available in Zimbabwe as imports make the fortification of their product a selling point.

So Zimbabwe is not racing into uncharted waters; it is following trends that are almost a century old and is able to access first-class advice.

It was interesting that when Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa announced that drafting of regulations had started he was speaking at the launch of new varieties of common crops that have been bred to contain additional quantities of several minerals and vitamins.

We hope this means that the Zimbabwean regulations will be laying down minimum levels of each vitamin and mineral, leaving it to the food processor to decide whether this means processing crops with the required levels or whether additional amounts need to be added in the processing stage.

Such new crops mean that those who grow and process their own food will be receiving the required additions.

Vitamin and mineral deficiencies tend to hit the poorest people hardest. The better off are more likely to have a fully balanced diet and a wide variety of foods; and these days probably eat a number of products that have been fortified already.

But the minister and his officials will, we believe, need to ensure that fortification levels are controlled.

Too much of one of these micro-nutrients can be just as bad, in a different way, as too little.

For each there is a “Goldilocks” range, not too much and not too little. Sometimes this range is very wide. For example, the first mandatory additive in Zimbabwe was iodine in salt.

The level required is enough to cope with iodine deficiencies in Zimbabwe but it is almost impossible to overdose; here there was 100 percent benefit with zero danger.

Other additives are not so easy, and sometimes international standards need to be adjusted to take into account the conditions and diet of the people.

Denmark, for example, had to ban one well-known global breakfast cereal just over a decade ago because it felt the fortification in the Danish context could be a danger; but no one else has followed that example.

This is why we hope our regulations will lay down how much of each micro-nutrient each listed food must contain, rather than set out how much must be added, regardless of what is there already.

By choosing the absolute amounts of each nutrient the dangers of overdosing should become negligible. That is, we can have all the benefits without the dangers.