Fortified or Enriched?
In surveying food products in grocery stores, you will notice some labels that shout “Fortified” and others “Enriched”. Are these two terms the same? Would a food item, marked “fortified with vitamin A” implies the same manufacturing process as that of another item marked “enriched with vitamin A”? Nope, Fortified is different from Enriched.
A fortified product means that after the processing of that product, an additional step is done to add nutrients. This nutrient cannot be found in the product, even if it was not yet processed. For example, milk is a rich source of many vitamins and minerals, but it does not provide vitamin D, a nutrient needed to strengthen the bones. After the usual process of making either evaporated or condensed milk, the nutrient vitamin D is added before the product is packed. The label will bear the mark “fortified with vitamin D”.
A product “enriched” with certain nutrients has an altogether different story. To “enrich” a product is to add nutrients that are already present in the product. The nutrient may have been diminished during the processing and so more of that nutrient will be added. For example, a fruit juice will always contain vitamin C or ascorbic acid.
Most fruits have ascorbic acid. But during the freezing and other processes of manufacturing the juice concentrate, the amount of ascorbic acid was reduced. It is a vitamin that easily breaks down. The manufacturer, in the last stage of processing, may opt to add ascorbic acid, before packing the finished product. This particular juice concentrate now has more vitamin C than other juice concentrates. But it does not imply that it has more vitamin C than the original fruit from which the juice was made. The label will boast of the mark “enriched with vitamin C”.
However, “fortified” or “enriched” does not necessarily mean that a product meets the recommended Daily Values of a particular nutrient. For example, a junk food may be marked “fortified with vitamin A”, but it cannot be a rich source of vitamin A.
The label merely stated that it has vitamin A and this nutrient may be present in minute amounts. Besides, eating junk foods is still considered unhealthy due to too much salts and preservatives in them, even if these are “fortified”.
If a food product is labeled with either “fortified” or “enriched”,
then it means that nutrients are artificially added to this product. But
you still cannot depend on this product as the sole source of these particular
nutrients. You must find other sources that bear these nutrients naturally.