Progress of prevention and treatment of iron deficiency

Many countries have prevented and treated iron deficiency by more and more iron nutritional fortifiers. Although technical challenges limit the amount of bioavailable iron that can be added to many foods,evidence from controlled trials has shown that iron fortification can effectively control iron deficiency. Selective plant breeding and genetic engineering are promising new approaches to improve dietary iron bioavailability.However, a major challenge is to show that they can increase iron content to nutritionally useful levels and that the additional iron is bioavailable. Key words: Iron-deficiency anemia;  Iron supplements;  Iron fortification;  Biofortificatio