Fortifying foods and drinks with vitamin D

Product Description

Current government advice on vitamin D relates to the protection of musculoskeletal health and is based on recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), following publication of its Vitamin D and health report in 2016.

In spring 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) launched a review to promote the importance of vitamin D and identify ways to improve vitamin D intake across the population. This included the potential option of fortifying foods and drinks with vitamin D.

As part of this review, DHSC asked SACN to provide scientific advice on the potential of mandatory vitamin D fortification for the UK population to meet the dietary recommendations for vitamin D.

SACN’s rapid review considers 2 aspects of the potential impact of mandatory fortification of foods with vitamin D, which are:

• experiences of countries with existing vitamin D fortification programmes, and their impact on vitamin D intakes and vitamin D status
• the efficacy of different forms of vitamin D to fortify food