What are fortified and enriched food products? Can you tell me actual examples?

Spain

Fortified foods are foods or food products to which extra nutrients have been added.

Vitamins and minerals are usually added to foods for three main reasons:

• They may replace some of the nutrients lost during manufacture and storage. For example, iron and several types of vitamin B are added to wheat flour after processing. This is known as restoration.
• They can be added to a "substitute" food in order to compensate for a missing nutrient present in the "traditional" alternative. The best known example of this is margarine, where vitamins A and D are added during production so it will have a similar vitamin level to butter.
• Nutrients may also be added to foods to enrich them further, even if the vitamins and minerals added are not normally present in that food. Calcium is often added to fruit juices and this can provide an important source for people who do not eat dairy products.

Many studies show that not all EU citizens have a diet which provides all the nutrients they need. It is estimated that in countries where manufacturers voluntarily add vitamins A and D to margarine and spreadable fats, this contributes about 20% of the recommended intake of vitamin A and about 30% of vitamin D for very important groups of the population. Iron-enriched breakfast cereals have become, in the 1990s, the principal source of iron in young children´s diets in the UK, replacing the meat that was the main source of iron in the 1950s. Foods enriched or fortified with vitamins and minerals can therefore make a significant contribution to nutrient intakes.

The European Union is developing legislation to harmonise requirements for fortified foods. As well as listing which vitamins and minerals may be added to foods, the legislation is expected to regulate the foods to which vitamins and minerals may be added.

Read

Proposal for EU rules about adding vitamins and minerals to foods - frequently asked questions
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/03/224&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Proposed regulation of the European Parliament and of the council on the addition of vitamins and minerals and of certain other substances to foods:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/food/labellingnutrition/vitamins/index_en.htm