PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES DISCUSSED AT HEALTH MINISTRY

ARKA
Nov 12, 2009

YEREVAN, November 12, /ARKA/. Members of an Armenian council set up to
tackle a flour enrichment program met Wednesday in the premises of
Armenian ministry of health to discuss a number of public health
related questions, the ministry of health said in a statement posted
on its official website.

The council was established by a prime minister’s decree on July 15,
2009. Health minister Harutyun Kushkian spoke about the importance of
this issue for public health. He said for a final solution to this
issue Armenian experts need to examine the international experience,
which he said will be done in cooperation with Armenian parliament.

Leili Moshiri, head of UNICEF Armenia Office, presented the
international experience of flour enrichment. She said flour
enrichment is implemented in 54 countries, including the United States
and Great Britain.

Enriched flour is flour with specific nutrients returned to it that
have been lost while it was prepared. Enriching is necessary because
the processing used to make white flour destroys some of these
nutrients that originally were present in the whole grain.