Alapala Group always pays attention for humanitarian and social issues of daily lives, of the less privileged members of society.
Under the umbrella of Food Fortification Initative, Alapala supports the Internatıonal Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus(IF)
Alapala’s donation to the International Federation for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus (IF) is being used to facilitate fortification of industrially milled wheat, maize, and rice in Africa. Fortification is a primary prevention program that IF promotes in cooperation with the Food Fortification Initiative (FFI).The Food Fortification Initiative encourages countries to add vitamins and minerals to industrially milled wheat and maize flour and rice.
Adding folic acid to these staple grains is credited with preventing at least 38,417 serious birth defects globally in one year – an average of 105 a day. A 2010 meta-analysisshowed that fortifying wheat flour with folic acid reduced the incidence of these defects, called neural tube defects, by an average of 46%.
All people need folic acid to produce and maintain healthy cells. Women especially need folic acid to help prevent neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida.
In 2011, only seven countries in Africa were fortifing at least 75% of their industrially milled wheat flour with folic acid. Now 19 countries have reached that level of fortification. Alapala’s contribution is helping FFI provide technical assistance for quality assurance and quality control in African countries that are already fortifying. Alapala funds are also being used to advocate for fortification of industrially milled maize and rice where those are the most commonly consumed grains.
