Dándole la vuelta a la tortilla

The report finds a widespread failure by food processors and supermarkets in Mexico to ensure that industrially produced breads and tortillas are adequately fortified with iron and zinc, despite legal requirements for the flours used to make them.

• A very small percentage of industrially produced staples meet the legal requirements for iron and zinc: only 14% of bread products (6 of 43) and 1.5% of tortilla products (1 of 69) clearly complied with the levels established in the fortification standard.
• The majority of analyzed products (84%) use elemental iron, such as electrolytic iron, which has lower bioavailability and is not recommended by the Mexican fortification standard or WHO guidelines for nixtamalized corn flour.
• Major food corporations showed significant non-compliance: none of the seven tortilla products analyzed from Gruma (Mission brand) met iron or zinc requirements, and only one bread product and one tortilla product from Grupo Bimbo complied with both.
• There is a discrepancy between the fortification of retail flours and the final products; while retail wheat flours often use recommended ferrous fumarate or sulfate, the bread and tortillas produced by the same companies often use cheaper, less effective elemental iron.
• The report identifies several legal gaps in NOM-247-SSA1-2008, including a lack of mandatory requirements for specific iron compounds, no clear designation of a government agency responsible for external supervision, and no requirement that industrially produced breads and tortillas specifically use adequately enriched flour.
• Micronutrient deficiencies remain a critical public health issue in Mexico, with 90% of women not receiving enough iron and 25% of adult men lacking sufficient zinc, contributing to high rates of anemia across all age groups.

APA

Changing Markets Foundation (2019). Dándole la vuelta a la tortilla. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dandole_la_vuelta_a_la_tortilla_WEB.pdf

Chicago

Changing Markets Foundation. Dándole la vuelta a la tortilla. 2019. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dandole_la_vuelta_a_la_tortilla_WEB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Changing Markets Foundation |title=Dándole la vuelta a la tortilla |date=May 2019 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dandole_la_vuelta_a_la_tortilla_WEB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{changingmarketsfoundation2019dndole, author = {{Changing Markets Foundation}}, title = {{Dándole la vuelta a la tortilla}}, institution = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2019}, month = may, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dandole_la_vuelta_a_la_tortilla_WEB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }