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Fortify Health has signed a partnership with Shayona Industries, a key equipment vendor. Shayona Industries will provide Fortify Health with critical equipment to support large-scale, cost effective fortification of wheat flour in India. To fortify wheat flour (or chakki atta), millers add key micronutrients into wheat flour before packaging. Fortify Health supports our mill partners to add iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 to their wheat flour. There is a wealth of evidence that fortifying wheat flour with these micronutrients can have a meaningful impact on reducing and preventing iron deficiency anaemia.
What equipment do mills need to fortify wheat flour? Millers use a piece of equipment called a microdoser to add the micronutrients (or premix) to their flour. The microdoser provides a continual and consistent supply of diluted premix into the flow of wheat flour. Fortify Health provides its mill partners with microdosers without charge and also trains staff at each mill to calibrate their microsoders, taking into account the unique characteristics of each mill. Shayona Industries will supply microdosers to Fortify Health’s mill partners under the newly signed partnership.
Microdosers are critical to the fortification process; they must be manufactured according to strict requirements to ensure that they release the appropriate amount of premix into the wheat flour being fortified. The appropriate amount of premix must be added to the flour because the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India prescribes a strict range for the amount of micronutrients to be added to fortified wheat flour. In addition, fortified flour will only be safe and effective for beneficiaries if it is fortified with an appropriate amount of premix. About Shayona Industries
Fortify Health went through an exhaustive, open tender process to identify the most appropriate vendor to support its intervention. We are happy to say that Shayona passed all technical tests with flying colours and was highly cost-effective in its proposals. We look forward to a long-term partnership with Shayona Industries, who are a three-generation, family owned business based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Looking forward In future, Fortify Health plans to undertake experiments to pilot innovative technologies to increase the cost-effectiveness and functionality of microdosers. Stay tuned for more exciting updates on this front!
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By Brendan Eappen, Chair of the Board and Co-Founder at Fortify Health Early last year, Nikita Patel, Fortify Health’s longstanding Co-founder and CEO, shared her intention to transition out of Fortify Health. In the second half of 2023, Fortify Health launched a competitive CEO search, drawing highly qualified external and internal applicants. This process culminated in the selection of an exceptional new CEO of Fortify Health. Since then, the Board and Nikita have been working to ensure a smooth handover to the next CEO of Fortify Health. Meet Tony
Tony has wide ranging work experience across monitoring and evaluation, management consulting, and law. Tony received his law degree from The University of Queensland and subsequently completed an MBA at Yale University and Masters of Law from University of Sydney. Before joining Fortify Health, Tony worked at IDinsight, where he focused on leveraging data and evidence to alleviate poverty. He sought out a position at Fortify Health in order to bring data and evidence to bear on the direct improvement of lives through the reduction and prevention of iron-deficiency anaemia. Tony brings a wealth of management experience, strategic decision making skills, and institutional knowledge to the role of CEO. He will decisively facilitate Fortify Health’s evolution into its next stage as an increasingly major contributor to the fortification landscape in India, with plans for further rapid scale-up with integrity and purpose. He formally took on the role in January 2024. We are very excited for Tony’s leadership as Fortify Health continues to pursue its mission to enable access to micronutrient-rich wheat flour to reduce and prevent iron deficiency anaemia. Tony will be driving forward some major work over the next one year:
With appreciation to Nikita
Nikita has had a tremendous impact on the organization at every stage: crafting its early strategy, establishing key partnerships, securing funding, building a team, and overseeing implementation through the present stage of early scale-up. Nikita’s enduring and trustworthy leadership has played a key role in securing $10 million across 3 GiveWell Incubation grants to reduce anaemia at scale in India. So far, an estimated 2.5 million beneficiaries are consuming fortified flour facilitated by Fortify Health’s programs each month (estimate for December 2023).
Since its inception, countless members of the Fortify Health team have been collectively responsible for the evolution of the organization. In celebrating Nikita’s contributions over the past 6.5 years, we must recognize that among her most critical work has been building a community of exceptional colleagues who have advanced the organization beyond our most ambitious dreams. Nikita’s person-centered management has been directly responsible for the growth of the incredible team that have made Fortify Health’s vision a reality. Nikita’s genuine care for the people around her is reflected in our collaborative, warm, and fair team culture and further validated by our team satisfaction surveys. She has also expertly managed challenging periods during the organization’s journey, ensuring that the years of investment in Fortify Health could materialize into real health impact. With that said, we are incredibly grateful to Nikita for her years of service to Fortify Health. We are excited that she will now be joining Akhil Bansal, Garvita Chawla and me as a member of Fortify Health’s board; in this capacity, Nikita will continue to be actively engaged in providing strategic direction and oversight to Fortify Health. While Nikita will surely be missed, we are all eager to see Fortify Health further its impact under Tony Senanayake’s leadership. - Brendan Eappen, Chair of the Board and Co-Founder at Fortify Health |
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