Declaration of Policies.
Section 2
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policies. - Section 15 of Article II of the Constitution provides that the State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them. The State recognizes that nutritional deficiency problems in the Philippines, based on nutrition surveys, include deficiencies in energy, iron, vitamin A, iodine, thiamin and riboflavin. To a minor extent, the Filipino diet is also deficient in ascorbic acid, calcium and folate. The State recognizes that food fortification is vital where there is a demonstrated need to increase the intake of an essential nutrient by one or more population groups, as manifested in dietary, biochemical or clinical evidences of deficiency. Food fortification is considered important in the promotion of optimal health and to compensate for the loss of nutrients due to processing and/or storage of food. Food fortification, therefore, shall be carried out to compensate for the inadequacies in Filipino diet, based on present-day needs as measured using the most recent Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA).