Elements of a National Food- Fortification Program for Bangladesh

Section 4: Cost Analysis of Food Fortificationequipment, but will also and more importantlyreflect the economies of scale associated withfactory output. 5Quality assurance and quality controlQuality assurance refers to systematicimplementation of a set of activities toensure that the fortified food will meetquality standards. Quality control refers tothe techniques and activities that documentcompliance with the technical requirements offood-fortification through the use of objective,measurable indicators.Each producing factory has a qualityassurancedepartment responsible forinexpensive, semi-quantitative testing carriedout at regular intervals while the mill is inoperation. Tests are run shortly after thesamples are taken so that problems canbe detected and corrected as they occur. Aportion of each sample is saved for possibleverification tests by food-control authorities.The premix received from the manufactureris also sampled and tested to confirm quality.Quality-control personnel are responsiblefor maintaining records of the testing aswell as of the quantities of premix used andfortified commodity produced. Periodically,samples are sent to outside laboratories toconfirm quality and conformity with technicalspecifications.As indicated in table 4.1, the costs of testingare low for wheat flour (Tk13 or $0.23 perMT) and oil (Tk 7.3 or $0.13 per MT), andslightly higher for sugar (Tk 14.2 or $0.24 perMT).LaborAdditional labor is required to operate andmonitor the fortification equipment and toadd the micronutrient premix to the feeder.Additional personnel are also required to carryout the various quality-control and qualityassuranceprocedures, including regularsampling and testing of the fortified food.Ranging between Tk0.2 for oil and Tk0.6 forwheat flour, labor costs per MT are negligiblefor all commodities under consideration.5 Economies of scale in production occur because both investment and operating costs per unit of output tend to decrease as quantityprocessed increases. For instance, investment costs of the equipment per unit of fortified food are expected to be lower for factorieswith larger production capacity since the same equipment may be used in smaller factories to produce a smaller output. Similarly, perunit labor costs decline with size because additional labor is marginal in a large plant relative to a smaller plant.Elements of a National Food-fortification Program for Bangladesh13