Activity Description: DSM [6] is a German company that creates and innovates products and services that promote a healthier, more sustainable, enjoyable, and efficient way of working and living. DSM's Nutrition Improvement Program [7], which focuses on the fortification of foods with vitamins and minerals in order to prevent disease and mortality due to malnutrition, is DSM's first initiative [8] in the context of the 'Base of the Pyramid'. This is a new development in the field of sustainability to which the company will increasingly be paying attention. The 'Base of the Pyramid' concept involves the development and implementation of new, innovative business models in developing countries in order to profitably serve the needs of the four billion people living on at most a few dollars per day.

DSM believes [9] that a healthy population is part of a country's wealth. Especially children, but also adults suffer from malnutrition in many parts of the world. Vitamin and mineral malnutrition, or hidden hunger, can have a severe impact on health, learning capacity, productivity and reproduction.

Vitamin A deficiency, iron deficiency anemia and iodine deficiency disorders are the most prevalent micronutrient deficiencies affecting all socio-economic levels. However, since the nutrition of many people depends on a narrow variety of foods that offer only a limited supply of micronutrients, it must be feared that deficiency may go far beyond the these three nutrients.

Staple food fortification has proven to be extremely effective in reducing micronutrient deficiencies across the world. Such means of delivering the missing micronutrients to the population require no change in food habits and are socially well accepted. Read more about the success stories of food fortification. Staple foods such as wheat or maize flour, sugar and oils offer themselves as suitable for micronutrient fortification because they are fundamental food items, consumed by most populations. Local factors such as tradition, dietary habits and technical practicability determine which of these vehicles may be used with most success.