• CSIR - Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute
  • G20
Salt and Marine Chemicals

Title of Process/ Know-how/ Product/Design/Equipment

Double fortified salt technology for fortification of salt with iron and iodine

  • IPR
    IPR Status & Details:
  • US 9765098 B2, IN 30285, WO 2013128474, AU 2013227207, CA 2865711, EP 13719626.7
Application/Uses/Problem being addressed

Double Fortified Salt is an innovative new cost-effective fortified food product - delivering small but crucial amounts of iodine and iron to human beings through their diet for mental capacity, maternal and infant survival and human productivity with an endeavor of “Anaemia mukht Bharat”.

Salient Technical Features including Competing Features/ Impact

This inventive process helps in retaining the white colour of the salt and preserving the effective concentration of iodine and iron intact over a long period of time for an extended shelf-life.

  • Fortified with iron in form of Fe3+ which is a more stable form of iron and white in colour
  • The stability of Fe3+ and that of iodine are excellent
  • Better free flow ability and aesthetic appearance
  • The process is easily scalable and cost effective
  • The additional nutrition that one gets out of this salt is magnesium, an important nutrient needed in the body that helps in preventing mellitus diabetes.
  • Safe, affordable, stable, and can be used without compromising on appearance, stability, taste, and texture of the salt
  • Community-based limited efficacy trial of CSIR-CSMCRI DFS for long term safety, and improvement in iron and iodine in blood serum confirms efficacy of DFS in boosting the iron and iodine levels in humans (sample size 300 adult human) without any side effect
    • TRL Level & Scale of Development:
    TRL 6

    Kg scale for fortifying agent and hundreds of Kg for salt

    Business scope & opportunity (in terms of scale, cost, market etc.):

    The total iodized salt production in India is 4.8 million MT per year (2016-17). Similar way demand for double fortified salt can be envisaged as 0.5 million MT per year considering 10 % of iodized salt’s demand. The process uses abundantly available bittern as magnesium source.

    Environmental Considerations:

    Environmentally friendly process

    Status of Licensing:
    Not yet licensed
    Status of Commercialization:
    Not applicable
    Major Raw Materials Needed

    Soda ash, caustic soda magnesium chloride, iron compound, potassium iodate

    Major Plant Equipment and Machinery Required

    General chemical process equipment like reactors, filter, boiler, dryer, pulverizer etc.

    Techno-Economics

    Economically viable process; The cost of fortification for fortifying salt to contain 1000 ppm of iron and 30 ppm of iodine works out to be ₹1.5 per kg of salt

    Technology Package

    Process know-how for the preparations of fortifying agents; Process for fortification of salt using the agents for DFS; Bio-availability, clinical studies, FSSAI analysis data; Basic engineering package; License fee and other financial details would be available on specific request.