Open Science. Real Impact. Better Health for All.

Double-Fortified Salt

Iron deficiency affects roughly 2 billion people — disproportionately women and children — reducing energy and cognition, raising maternal mortality, and cutting GDP by around 4% in many low- and middle-income countries. Salt is the ideal vehicle to fix it: it is consumed in every culture, in small daily quantities, and is centrally processed even in low-income countries. Around 6 billion people already eat iodized salt.

Our Fortified Salt Consortium, with the University of Toronto and JVS Foods, developed the encapsulated ferrous fumarate (EFF) granule that makes double-fortified salt possible — manufactured in India, then blended into iodized salt at existing plants at a 1:150 ratio. EFF has more than 5× the bioavailability of ferrous sulfate and preserves nutrient stability and taste.

DFS now reaches an estimated 50+ million people and 10+ billion meals a year, mostly through Indian state safety nets that fund and run their own programmes. Peer-reviewed studies by ETH Zurich and Cornell found 15–23% reductions in iron deficiency within a year, alongside improved cognition.

• 50M+people reached
• 10B+meals fortified a year
• 15–23%less iron deficiency in one year
• <$0.25per person, per year