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MACARONI PRODUCTS ENRICHMENT The enrichment of macaroni, spaghetti, and other alimentary pastes has been pro- vided for by the issuance of standards26. Since the customary Italian method of cook- ing most of these products in an excess of water leads to substantial loss of the nu- trients, the minimum prescribed levels per pound are higher than those for flour: thia- mine 4 milligrams, riboflavin 1.7 milligrams, niacin 27 milligrams, and iron 13 milligrams. A segment of the alimentary paste indus- try requested the issuance of standards and has been zealous in behalf of enrichment standards and practice; another segment, perhaps of about equal size with respect to volume production, has been rather indif- ferent in the matter. Hence about half the total production is systematically enriched and half is not at the present time. New York State has given some consid- eration to compulsory enrichment of ali- mentary pastes for the benefit of its rela- tively large population of Italian extraction. However, no legislative action has been taken by New York or any other state. RICE ENRICHMENT In Asia In Asia, through the enterprise of Hoff- mann-LaRoche, Inc., the first process for making a premix for rice improvement was devised in Manila, P. I., and later operated there and in Bangkok, Singapore, and Osaka. Rice grains heavily impregnated with thiamine, niacin, and iron were coated with an alcoholic solution including zein, abietic acid, talc, and fatty acids. The coat- ing served the purpose of preventing loss of vitamins during the washing of rice prior to cooking. The premix was designed to be mixed at the rice mill with 199 times its own weight of ordinary white rice; the mixture provided the same levels of thia- mine, niacin, and iron as does enriched flour in the United States. A requirement was that not less than 85 per cent of the nutri- ents be retained after a prescribed washing in cold water. Several years later a second process for making rice premix was devised and placed in commercial production by Merck & Company. This process employed the use of zein and confectioners shellac to achieve a premix having qualities similar to the one already in use. Both processes compete for the market. In all the Philip- pine endeavors27, fortification to U. S. levels with thiamine, niacin, and iron has been practiced, riboflavin being omitted. Never- theless, the Filipinos have continuously and officially referred to the product as "en- riched" rather than "fortified", the connota- tion of the former term being preferred for popular appeal. During the Bataan Experiment, 1947 to 195028, enrichment was subsidized, but as attempts were made in 1950 and 1951 to extend the practice to larger populations in the rice-producing provinces of northern Luzon the retail price of rice had to be advanced about 1 per cent to cover the cost of enrichment. Local ordinances forbade the sale of unenriched white rice but these were poorly enforced. This was also true of a national law adopted in August 1952 under the leadership of Dr. Juan Salcedo, who had conducted the Bataan Experi- ment. There has never been substantial protest by consumers of the advance in retail prices. Rice millers have, however, protested, and this opposition has become well organized since about 1953. The most obvious reason for this opposi- tion is that the non-complying miller has a 'Federal Register 11: 7520 (1946). ' J. Salcedo ct al. Artificial enrichment of white rice as a solution to endemic beriberi. Report of field trials in Bataan. J. Nutrition 42: 501 (1950). 1 Better health through better rice. Williams-Waterman Fund, Research Corporation. New York, 1952. 9
The corn meal and grits brought into the South from the midwestern corn belt is all of the degerminated variety and is al- most entirely enriched. The proportion of corn products for human consumption in the South which originates in the Midwest to that which is produced and milled in the South varies considerably from year to year according to the yield from southern fields as influenced by rainfall and other climatic conditions. The tendency is for the southern crops to be used as long as they last and for the import from the Mid- west to supply the balance. In an average year the corn of western origin used for human feeding in the South approximately equals that grown in the southern states. Hence, roughly half the corn for human use enters the market in an enriched state from the Midwest. An additional amount, not readily ascertainable with precision, is enriched at southern mills. A survey of the extent of corn meal enrichment was made in the summer of 1957 through the cooperation of the Agri- cultural Extension Services or State Health Departments of 12 southern states. Spot checks were made in retail stores in differ- ent areas of each state as to the kind of corn meal sold and the extent to which each was enriched. The results showed that the percentages of corn meal sold which was enriched were: Alabama Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Per Cent 95 31 87 60 64 78 North Carolina South Carolina Tennessee Texas Virginia West Virginia Per Cent 74 100 81 97 26 55 A report was not obtained from Arkan- sas; otherwise the entire South where corn is an important human food was covered. Obviously the intensiveriess of the survey varied from state to state and the figures are probably not strictly comparable with one another. Nevertheless, the results are most encouraging in that they indicate that a high percentage of enrichment has been achieved in areas where corn consumption is highest. Recurrence of endemic pellagra is difficult to imagine if these practices are maintained at present levels. It is important that an educational program on the merits of corn meal enrichment be continued. Corn grits were not included in the sur- vey, but nearly all of this product is made by larger mills and nearly all is enriched. During the past decade the smaller mills have discontinued producing corn grits because more labor and equipment are required to produce grits than corn meal. The larger mills usually enrich and market good-appearing, clean grits in consumer- size packages which the homemaker pre- fers because washing before cooking is unnecessary. Quick-cooking grits, a rather recent innovation of the larger mills, has hastened the trend to eliminate washing. In 1946 many small mills produced a qual- ity of grits that homemakers washed before cooking. For this reason, the Food and Drug Administration promulgated a stand- ard for grits enrichment which included rinse resistance to protect those consumers who washed grits before cooking. In Au- gust 1957, a spot survey among 11 southern states revealed that 92 per cent of the homemakers no longer wash grits. The need for rinse resistance has therefore been eliminated by changes in milling and mer- chandising. The time may be appropriate for a change in the Federal standards for enriched grits by elimination of the require- ment for rinse resistance. This would cut the cost of enrichment approximately in half. Further information on the program for the enrichment of corn meal and grits may be found in an article by Lease25. 'E. J. Lease. Com meal enrichment. J. Am. Dietet. Assoc. 29: 866 (1953).
