Following a comprehensive audit by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Mühlenchemie’s production facility in Suzhou, China now meets all the quality requirements for supplying the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) with micronutrient premixes.
GAIN was commissioned by the WFP to ensure that it maintains the highest quality standards in the production of foods.
This is the fourth Mühlenchemie plant to be certified by the NGO after Germany, Mexico and the US.
It widens the company’s international network of production facilities in which fortified foods can be produced locally according to the same high quality standards.
Nearly 2 billion people worldwide suffer from 'hidden hunger', a vitamin or mineral deficiency.
Those who suffer worst are women of child-bearing age, since micronutrient deficiency in the mother has a negative effect on the pre and postnatal development of her children. Fortification of flour and the distribution of micronutrient-enriched foods is one approach to address this problem.
With a network of five production plants and 18 applications laboratories extending from Europe through Africa to Central America and Asia, Mühlenchemie has responded to the worldwide demand for vitamin and mineral premixes for use in flour fortification.
Besides selling solutions for flour standardisation on the free market, Mühlenchemie now meets the quality requirements to participate in tenders for contracts with the WFP in Asia, too.
The audit confirmed that the plant in Suzhou meets the stringent requirements of the WFP. The certificate now permits the facility to offer vitamin and mineral premixes for Super Cereal, the nutritious maize and soy mixture of the United Nations WFP.
To ensure continuous quality management, Mühlenchemie has also invested in a humidity chamber in which real-time stability tests of its own can be carried out on-site, without recourse to outside laboratories.
“Although large parts of Asia are becoming increasingly prosperous, there is still a great need to combat malnutrition in some populations in the region. With our capacities on the spot, we can guarantee short routes and high quality standards,” said Hendrik Mögenburg, Mühlenchemie’s regional director for Asia.
The construction work on a second Mühlenchemie plant in Malaysia is soon to be completed, and the facility will also be certified for the production of micronutrient premixes.
“With our thorough understanding of the needs of the local milling industries, we do not just offer exactly the right products; above all, we give our customers sound advice on applications on the spot.”
One of the countries of the region in which the WFP works is North Korea. Forty per cent of the local population suffers from malnutrition.
Since the 1990s, the people of North Korea have been dependent on food aid from the United Nations. It is hoped that the provision of Super Cereal will help to improve living conditions in the country and have a positive effect on the health of present and future generations. The staff of the WFP ensure that the relief supplies benefit only the people who really need them.