The fortification of foods has emerged as a major strategy to improve product nutrient levels, with not only food manufacturers but also entire governments moving to mandate this at a national level, such as in India.
Unfortunately, food fortification has also provided unscrupulous parties with the opportunity to make fraudulent or unvalidated nutritional claims to consumers about their products, in order to increase their perceived value and hike up prices accordingly.
In order to prevent such violations, various governments are introducing new regulatory measures to tighten governance and Saudi Arabia has emerged as the latest market to update its regulations regarding food fortification and nutritional claims.
“[The priority] is that all packaged food products must not carry descriptions that portray the product in a false, misleading or deceptive manner, or in any way that may give a false impression of their characteristics under any circumstances,” the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) said via a formal statement.
“Any on-label health or nutritional claim that is made regarding vitamins or minerals must be in accordance with [this regulation] and must not mislead or deceive the consumer regarding the properties or nutritional value that may result from adding these nutrients.”
SFDA has also entered a mandate that all fresh, unprocessed foods are subject to a zero-addition rule, meaning that the fortification of such items with vitamins and minerals is no longer allowed.
Examples of these items are meat, seafood, poultry, fruits, vegetables and honey.
“To make health or nutritional claims, manufacturers must also add in these vitamins or minerals to food products in a form that is bio-available or readily absorbed by the human body,” the agency added.
“Mandatory fortification of various foods with certain vitamins or minerals may also be made by the relevant local competent authorities in order to reduce a disease or correct the nutritional status of the local community.”
The new regulation has been notified to the World Trade Organisation here, and is currently open for public comment.
More information can be found in the regulation documentation here (in Arabic), and comments can be submitted to the Saudi Standards Metrology and Quality Organisation via email here before April 7 2026.
Mandatory fortification in Saudi Arabia
The new regulation has also specified the technical requirements for fortification, such as nutrient content per 100g or 100ml of food, and several key product categories are also subject to mandatory fortification in the country.
Liquid milk for example is required to be fortified with vitamins A and D — UHT milk for instance needs to contain at least 200IU of Vitamin A and 40 IU of Vitamin D per 100ml to avoid penalties.
Iron fortification is also a priority in the kingdom, with wheat flour the main food category for this.
This is considered particularly important for low-extraction wheat flour, which is highly refined white flour with almost all the wheat bran and wheat germ removed. Here, it is mandatory for manufacturers to ensure sufficient amounts of various forms of iron are added into the flour, such as electrolytic iron, ferrous sulfate and ferrous fumarate.
“Whether mandatory or not, all fortification with added vitamins and minerals must have the quantity of said additions specified in metric units and as the percentage of the reference intake of the nutrient per 100g or 100ml, or per package if it contains one item,” SFDA added.
“All firms are also prohibited from making any claims that a balanced diet cannot provide adequate amounts of the nutrients they are making a claim on.”
