“The evaluation based on Susenas 2023–2025 data confirms that mandatory food fortification has become an effective public policy instrument for improving micronutrient intake at the household level. However, its benefits still need to be strengthened to ensure they are more equitable, measurable, and sustainable.”
Indonesia continues to face micronutrient deficiencies that affect health, productivity, and human capital development. Iron-deficiency anemia, iodine deficiency, and vitamin A deficiency remain key concerns, as they are closely linked to child growth and development, learning capacity, pregnancy risks, and workforce productivity. In this context, mandatory food fortification holds a strategic role, as it can reach a large proportion of the population through commonly consumed foods without requiring significant behavioral change. With its wide population coverage and relatively low implementation cost, fortification is considered one of the most cost-effective interventions to reduce the national burden of micronutrient deficiencies.
Fortification Policy in Indonesia
Food fortification policy in Indonesia has been implemented through several key commodities, including iodized salt, wheat flour fortified with iron, zinc, and B vitamins, and packaged palm cooking oil fortified with vitamin A. Each of these commodities has distinct characteristics. Iodized salt has strong population reach, wheat flour benefits from wide distribution through various processed food products, while packaged palm cooking oil has the potential to serve as a major source of vitamin A, although it is highly influenced by price and supply dynamics. These differences call for a more adaptive policy approach—one that goes beyond technical regulation to also consider market dynamics and household consumption behavior.
Evaluation Approach Using Susenas 2023–2025
Through the evaluation of Susenas 2023–2025, KFI utilized household consumption data to assess whether fortified foods are actually being consumed, by whom, in what quantities, and how consumption is distributed across regions and income groups. This approach is essential, as evaluations based solely on production, distribution, and laboratory testing are insufficient to capture actual fortification exposure at the household level. Susenas enables analysis of consumption trends, access inequalities, and shifts driven by price changes and policy dynamics. Amid the limited availability of data to evaluate food fortification programs, Susenas serves as a critical bridge between fortification policy and its population-level impact—particularly in assessing the equitable distribution of benefits in the form of micronutrient intake from mandatorily fortified food commodities.
Key Findings: Iodized Salt
The evaluation shows that national coverage of iodized salt consumption remained relatively stable at around 81% during 2023–2025. This indicates that salt iodization has reached the majority of households. However, this national average masks disparities across regions and income quintiles. Households in the lowest income quintile have lower coverage compared to higher-income households, while certain regions continue to face limited access to adequately iodized salt. Another important finding is the decline in average per capita salt consumption, from 2.44 grams in 2023 to 2.36 grams per day in 2025.
This decline aligns with efforts to prevent non-communicable diseases. However, from a fortification perspective, it underscores the need for more consistent iodization quality. As salt consumption decreases, each gram of salt must contain iodine at the required standard to maintain its contribution to iodine adequacy. Therefore, policy focus on iodized salt needs to shift from consumption coverage toward the market share of salt that meets iodization standards. In other words, success should no longer be measured solely by “how many households consume salt,” but by “how much of the salt consumed meets iodization standards”.
Key Findings: Wheat Flour
For wheat flour, the evaluation indicates an extremely high level of consumption participation—exceeding 99% of households during 2023–2025. This highlights wheat flour as a highly effective fortification vehicle in terms of distribution. However, actual consumption levels of wheat flour and its processed products vary significantly across regions and income groups. In areas with lower wheat consumption—such as parts of eastern Indonesia—the benefits of fortification are more limited compared to urban areas and higher-income households.
The contribution of iron and B vitamins from fortified wheat flour is estimated to range between 10–20% of recommended dietary intake. While this contribution is important due to its wide reach, it is not sufficient as a standalone solution for addressing micronutrient deficiencies. Therefore, fortification policy needs to begin considering diversification of food vehicles that align with local consumption patterns. Foods such as sago, maize, cassava, or their derivatives could be explored as additional vehicles, provided they meet technical feasibility, are socially accepted, and are widely consumed. This diversification is crucial to ensure that the benefits of fortification are not concentrated only among higher-income groups or urban populations.
Key Findings: Packaged Palm Cooking Oil
Packaged palm cooking oil shows a more fluctuating pattern. The share of households consuming packaged palm cooking oil declined from 38% in 2023 to 28% in 2024, before increasing to 55% in 2025. This fluctuation indicates that the benefits of vitamin A fortification through cooking oil are highly sensitive to price, supply, and market policies. When packaged products become unaffordable or supply is disrupted, lower-income households tend to shift to bulk cooking oil, which is generally not fortified. Therefore, the success of palm cooking oil fortification cannot be separated from broader food and industrial policies. Fortification regulations will have limited impact if fortified products are not consistently available or affordable for vulnerable populations.
Price stabilization, supply security, and expanded access to fortified packaged cooking oil should be treated as integral components of public nutrition policy. Fortified cooking oil should not be viewed solely as an economic commodity, but as a vehicle to ensure adequate vitamin A intake at the population level. Accordingly, fortification policy for cooking oil must be integrated with national price stabilization and market governance policies.
Inequality as a Key Challenge
Overall, KFI’s evaluation shows that mandatory food fortification has reached a national scale, but its benefits are not yet fully equitable. Strong national averages can mask significant disparities. Low-income households, remote areas, and provinces with consumption patterns that differ from the national average are at risk of receiving fewer benefits. The current challenge in fortification is no longer policy adoption, but effectiveness, equity, and implementation resilience. Therefore Indonesia’s fortification agenda must be oriented toward equity—not merely coverage. Ensuring affordability and access for lower-income populations lies at the core of the National Nutrition Security System.
Policy Implications
These findings highlight the need to strengthen fortification performance indicators. Success should not be measured solely by the number of households consuming fortified foods. Indicators must also capture product quality, fortificant levels, market share of compliant products, affordability, and consistency of market surveillance. Such an approach would enable the government to assess whether fortification is merely an administrative requirement or a policy that genuinely contributes to improving micronutrient intake. These indicators should be integrated into a national dashboard that can be regularly monitored by both central and subnational governments.
Strengthening the Monitoring System
KFI also emphasizes that Susenas should be positioned as a core component of the national fortification monitoring system. Susenas data can serve as the backbone for consumption monitoring, given its regular availability and ability to capture socioeconomic disparities. However, consumption data must be complemented with product quality testing, industry compliance data, market surveillance, price information, and nutritional status data. Such integration would provide a more comprehensive picture of fortification performance and enable faster policy responses to shifts in consumption or supply disruptions. Cross-data integration is a prerequisite for building a responsive and evidence-based nutrition security system.
Fortification as a Pillar of the National Nutrition Security System
Furthermore, this evaluation reinforces the need to position mandatory food fortification as a foundational pillar of the National Nutrition Security System. While Indonesia has established various public assurance systems, guarantees for basic micronutrient adequacy still need to be operationalized more clearly. Within this framework, fortification can function as a population-level intervention that complements supplementation, food diversification, social protection, nutritious food programs, nutrition education, and public health services. By positioning fortification as a population-wide pillar, Indonesia can ensure that all citizens receive a basic level of protection against micronutrient deficiencies. In this context, Susenas can serve as the backbone of population-level monitoring within the National Nutrition Security System, as it provides routine, representative, and inequality-sensitive consumption data.
Conclusion
KFI emphasizes that Indonesia’s fortification agenda must shift from expanding coverage to ensuring impact. Every mandatory fortified food product must meet quality standards, vulnerable populations must have adequate access, and market changes must be continuously monitored for their impact on consumption. By leveraging Susenas data on a regular basis, Indonesia has the opportunity to build more evidence-based, inequality-responsive, and accountable nutrition policies—especially in the context of limited national surveys that provide individual-level food consumption data.
The evaluation of Susenas 2023–2025 delivers a clear message: mandatory food fortification programs are working, but they must be further strengthened to ensure more equitable and sustainable benefits. Fortification should be treated as a core public policy instrument to guarantee basic micronutrient adequacy. With strong quality control, integrated data systems, stable access to fortified products, and a clear focus on vulnerable populations, fortification can serve as a critical foundation for an inclusive, measurable, and sustainable National Nutrition Security System.
