The article “Analysis of the supply of micronutrient-fortified foods in Portugal”, co-authored by Ana Pimenta and Ana Gomes, faculty members and researchers at the Faculty of Biotechnology (ESB) of Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the Centre for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF), received the 2022 Best Publication Award from Acta Portuguesa de Nutrição.
This pioneering study represents the first national survey of fortified foods available on the Portuguese market, analyzing 5,704 labels collected by the IAN-AF 2015-2016, coordinated by Carla Lopes and Duarte Torres, faculty members of Universidade do Porto, who are also co-authors of the article.
The results identified 911 fortified products, equivalent to 16% of the foods consumed by the Portuguese population, mainly in the categories of breakfast cereals, biscuits and sweets, dairy products, non-alcoholic beverages, and milk substitutes. B vitamins, vitamin D, iron, and calcium were among the most commonly added micronutrients. These data provide, for the first time, a clear overview of voluntary fortification in Portugal. According to the research team, this “constitutes a necessary basis to understand the true impact of fortification on the Portuguese diet and to guide researchers, industry, and policymakers toward a more integrated and sustainable approach to population nutrition.”
The award was presented during the V Seminar “From Writing to Publication: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence”, held on 3 December at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra. The event recognized the best publications from 2022, 2023, and 2024, marking a particularly symbolic year for Acta Portuguesa de Nutrição, which celebrates its 10th anniversary.
The recognized research reinforces the scientific strategy of the Food, Nutrition, and Health area at ESB-CBQF, which integrates research and teaching through projects aimed at improving the nutritional and functional quality of foods, assessing reformulation practices, evaluating dietary patterns in Portugal, and developing tools to enhance consumer food literacy - resources frequently used as case studies in the Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition Sciences at ESB.