Food fortification is the most significant development in the effort to control

development in the effort to control 1,2 micronutrient deficiencies . Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) are the major micronutrient deficiencies of public 2,3 health importance in India . Salt is a universal vehicle for the fortification of iodine / iron as it is consumed at approximately the same levels throughout the year by all normal populations, with very little risk of overdosing. Low-cost technologies for 4,5 the manufacture of stable iodized salt 6,7 and colour-free iron-fortified salt are available. With the introduction of universal salt iodization (USI) as a National Policy, the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad evolved the concept of fortification of iodized salt with iron (double fortified salt, DFS) for controlling IDD and IDA as 'one intervention controlling two problems' 8 and succeeded in its pioneering work . In view of their antagonistic chemical properties, simultaneous incorporation of potassium iodate (powerful oxidizing agent) and ferrous sulphate (powerful reducing agent) in DFS requires a stabilizer to protect iodine from undesirable interactions with iron that could lead to iodine loss. NIN developed a DFS formulation using Sodium Hexa Meta Phosphate (SHMP), a permitted 9 food additive as a stabilizer for this purpose. NIN-DFS simultaneously provides 35-40 ppm iodine and 1000 ppm iron (Table 1). As a prophylactic measure, DFS provides the entire daily requirement of iodine and one-third of the daily requirement of iron. Daily consumption of DFS over a long period of more than two years is necessary to result in any significant reduction in irondeficiency anaemia. Edible-grade common salt and food-grade chemicals should be used in the production of DFS. High levels of magnesium or moisture in salt are detrimental to the stability of 10 iodine in DFS . The quality attributes of the chemicals required for NIN-DFS are given in Table 2.