Micronutrient Deficiency: Calls Grow For Mandatory Seasoning Cubes Fortification

As Nigeria battles micronutrient deficiencies among women and children, nutrition experts are calling for mandatory fortification of bouillon cubes with folic acid and vitamin B12, stating that the widely consumed product could help prevent birth defects and improve nutritional outcomes.

Micronutrient deficiencies rarely announce themselves. They may not produce the immediate, visible signs associated with severe malnutrition, yet their consequences can affect pregnancy, childhood development, educational outcomes and productivity for years.

Across Nigeria, inadequate intake of essential vitamins and minerals remains a public health concern, particularly among women of reproductive age and children in households where access to diverse, nutrient-rich foods is limited.

Among the nutrients attracting renewed attention are folate, also known as vitamin B9, and vitamin B12. Both are essential to healthy blood formation and neurological function, while adequate folate intake before conception and during early pregnancy is critical to reducing the risk of neural tube defects in babies.

Nutrition advocates said the country could make greater progress in addressing these deficiencies by moving beyond voluntary food fortification and requiring manufacturers to add specified micronutrients to widely consumed products.

One proposal is the mandatory fortification of bouillon cubes, commonly known as seasoning cubes, with folic acid and vitamin B12.

The advocates said that because the products are already used in many households, fortification could provide an additional route for delivering essential nutrients to populations that may not obtain adequate amounts from their diets.

However, they acknowledge that the policy must be carefully implemented to address concerns about excessive sodium intake, product affordability, quality control and the possibility that consumers could mistakenly interpret fortified products as healthy regardless of how much they consume.

The Executive Secretary of the Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Sunday Okoronkwo, said the consequences of micronutrient deficiencies make a stronger preventive approach necessary.
“Micronutrient deficiency is a major public health and human development challenge. It is particularly concerning because it is often invisible. You may not immediately see the effects, but the consequences can become severe over time,” he said.

According to him, inadequate intake of folate and vitamin B12 can contribute to anaemia, poor maternal health, impaired cognitive development in children and reduced productivity.
He said the country should prioritise prevention through dietary diversification, supplementation and food fortification rather than waiting for deficiencies to become clinically apparent.

Folate is essential for DNA synthesis, cell division and the development of the foetal neural tube, which forms the foundation of the brain and spinal cord.

When a woman does not have sufficient folate around conception and during early pregnancy, the risk of neural tube defects, including spina bifida and anencephaly, increases.

These conditions develop during the first weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. Consequently, interventions that begin only after pregnancy has been confirmed may miss part of the critical prevention window.

The World Health Organization recommended that women planning a pregnancy take 400 micrograms of folic acid daily, beginning before conception and continuing through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, to help prevent neural tube defects.

However, relying exclusively on individual supplementation can be challenging where pregnancies are unplanned, access to healthcare is limited or women do not receive timely preconception counselling.

This is one reason food fortification has attracted attention as a population-level intervention.

“Food fortification is particularly important because women may not know they are pregnant until several weeks into the pregnancy. The neural tube develops very early, often before a woman realises she is pregnant,” Okoronkwo said.

He argued that women consuming appropriately fortified foods before conception and during early pregnancy could receive some of the nutrients needed to improve maternal and newborn health.

The potential benefits extend beyond folate.

Vitamin B12 supports normal neurological function and red blood cell formation. Sustained deficiency can cause megaloblastic anaemia and neurological complications, while inadequate intake during infancy and early childhood can impair development.

Because vitamin B12 occurs naturally mainly in animal-source foods, people whose diets contain little meat, fish, eggs or dairy products may be at greater risk of inadequate intake.

For low-income households struggling to afford a diverse diet, obtaining sufficient quantities of these nutrients can be difficult.

Nevertheless, dietary inadequacy should not automatically be equated with clinically confirmed deficiency. Nigeria needs reliable, representative data on folate and vitamin B12 status to establish the scale of the problem and assess the impact of interventions.

Why Bouillon Cubes Are Being Considered
The proposal to fortify bouillon cubes rests on a straightforward principle: use a food product already consumed by large numbers of people as an additional vehicle for delivering essential nutrients.

Unlike specialised nutritional products that may reach only a limited market, seasoning cubes are widely used in household cooking across different income groups.

Advocates said this existing consumption pattern could allow manufacturers to deliver selected micronutrients without requiring consumers to adopt unfamiliar foods or substantially change their eating habits.

If appropriately designed and regulated, fortification could therefore complement supplementation programmes, dietary diversification and existing food fortification initiatives.

For Okoronkwo, the approach offers an opportunity to reach women before pregnancy is recognised and to improve access to nutrients among households that may struggle to obtain them through diet alone.

He maintained that Nigeria’s high malnutrition burden justifies a more consistent policy that ensures fortified products are available across the market.

However, bouillon cubes should be viewed as one component of a broader nutrition strategy, not a replacement for a balanced diet, antenatal care or medically indicated supplementation.

The effectiveness of fortification will also depend on the quantities consumed, the levels of nutrients added, their stability during storage and cooking, and the proportion of products that actually meet the prescribed standards.

Nigeria has already taken a step towards bouillon cube fortification.

In 2024, the country adopted a voluntary standard providing for the addition of selected micronutrients, including folic acid, vitamin B12, iron and zinc, to bouillon cubes.

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria’s NCP 123:2024, the Code of Practice for Bouillon Fortification, provides a technical framework for the initiative.

The development forms part of the government’s wider approach to food fortification, which seeks to improve the nutritional quality of commonly consumed foods by adding essential vitamins and minerals.

Nigeria already operates mandatory fortification programmes for specified food vehicles, including the addition of iodine to salt and vitamin A to designated products such as edible vegetable oil and sugar. Requirements also apply to specified flour products.

The bouillon standard, however, provides for voluntary fortification rather than automatically requiring every manufacturer to add the selected micronutrients.

This distinction is central to the current debate. While the adoption of the standard establishes a technical pathway for fortification, it does not demonstrate that all manufacturers have implemented it, that all products on the market are fortified or that the government has made fortification compulsory.

Okoronkwo said the time has come to move from voluntary participation to mandatory requirements.

“Nigeria’s adoption of a voluntary standard in 2024 was a step in the right direction. It established a technical pathway for adding nutrients, including iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamin B12, to seasoning cubes,” he said.

“However, the challenge with a voluntary approach is that some manufacturers may comply while others may not.”

He explained that manufacturers willing to invest in fortification could face higher production costs than competitors that do not add the nutrients, potentially placing compliant companies at a commercial disadvantage.

In his view, a mandatory standard would establish common requirements for manufacturers, reduce the incentive to avoid fortification costs and help ensure that consumers receive products meeting the same nutritional specifications.

He called on the government to consider tax incentives, including reducing or removing taxes on nutrient premixes and other essential fortification inputs.

Such support, he said, could reduce production costs and help prevent manufacturers from transferring the entire additional cost to consumers.

“Affordability is critical. Bouillon cubes are widely consumed in Nigeria, including by poorer households. If fortification significantly increases prices, some consumers may reduce their consumption or stop buying the products altogether. That would undermine the very public health objective the policy is intended to achieve,” he said.

Despite the potential nutritional benefits, the proposal has raised concerns because bouillon cubes contain sodium, and excessive sodium intake is associated with high blood pressure and increased cardiovascular risk.

Nigeria is already confronting a substantial burden of hypertension and other non-communicable diseases. Consequently, any policy involving a widely consumed, sodium-containing product must consider its contribution to overall dietary sodium intake.

Nutrition Consultant, Bamidele Omotola, argued that fortification should not be rejected simply because seasoning cubes are already consumed. Instead, he said manufacturers should improve the nutritional composition of their products while addressing concerns about excessive sodium.

He compared the approach with efforts to reformulate other widely consumed products, including sugar-sweetened beverages, to reduce undesirable ingredients while improving their contribution to consumers’ needs.

“Government has also formulated programme on food fortification to enhance vitamins and minerals, so within that scope, the seasoning producers trying to fortify their products with desirable elements, I don’t think it’s something that is bad as far as the concern of public interest,” he said.

However, Omotola stressed that the sodium issue must be addressed.

“The level of sodium in most of these seasoning cubes are very high, and seasoning cubes are just enhancers of meals, they are not usually used in large quantities,” he said.

He said that bringing sodium levels within applicable government limits while adding essential micronutrients could offer benefits to consumers.

“I think it is a win-win if they comply with the regulation of reducing the level of sodium in them,” he said.

His position highlights the need to consider nutrient fortification and sodium reduction together.

Another concern is whether adding vitamins and minerals could make consumers perceive seasoning cubes as healthier and encourage them to use more of the product.

If that happens, any nutritional benefit could be accompanied by increased sodium exposure, depending on the composition of the product and the quantity consumed.

Omotola questioned whether there was sufficient evidence to conclude that fortification would necessarily increase consumption.

“The other concerns people are raising is that it may increase the level of consumption but no evidence that has alluded to that,” he said.

While bouillon fortification could contribute to improving micronutrient intake, experts caution that no single intervention can resolve Nigeria’s nutritional challenges..

The task, for Nigeria, is to translate its existing policy framework into an evidence-based, affordable and effectively regulated programme that reaches vulnerable populations without creating additional health risks.