#FFI20: Juan Pablo Peña-Rosas

Head of Global Initiatives of Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the World Health Organization

FFI: How did you become interested in nutrition?

Peña-Rosas: I started to be interested in nutrition as a professional field, while I was working in the hotel business during my medical studies. I worked night shifts at the front desk of various hotels (Caracas Hilton Hotel, Holiday Inn Caracas), and then went to medical school during the day. Somehow, I also managed to register for all the internal training that Hilton offered its staff, and so I was trained in pastry, food service, food warehouse, auditing, sales, and other food and beverage areas. I was asked to support the openings of new contracts that were initiating operations and that’s how I worked with the nutrition departments of local hospitals and became familiar and more interested in this field. I worked with hospital nutritionists to adapt menus and supervise production lines for patients and staff.

FFI: What inspired you to become involved with food fortification?

Peña-Rosas: My first exposure to become involved in food fortification started when I was hired at Cornell University campus by Kellogg Company in 1997 to become Manager of Public Affairs and Nutrition Communications for the Regional Office of Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Queretaro, Mexico, and overseeing 8 subsidiaries throughout Latin America at the time. The addition of vitamins and minerals to ready-to eat cereals was considered as added value to the marketing strategy of these products. I was involved in the development of a strategy to add zinc, calcium, and iron EDTA in all categories.

FFI: How is your organization prioritizing fortification?

Peña-Rosas: Fortification as a public health strategy can improve the micronutrient profile of staple foods that people usually consume without changing their dietary and cultural habits. This must be done in a mandated way and without advertising as we do not want the population to be consuming more of a product (i.e., such as bread) or more salt because it is iodized.

FFI: What health outcomes do you expect fortification to improve globally?

Peña-Rosas: There are process outputs and mid-term outcomes that will signal progress towards the achievement of the goals and longer-term measurable outcomes. It is important to have clarity on the logic model and also to be realistic in the maturity of the industry where the staple foods are to be fortified. I have been in settings where quality control systems and production of wheat flour needed improvements before they could start safely fortifying wheat flour.

FFI: In your experience, what are the main components to a successful fortification program?

Peña-Rosas: In my experience, the main driver is political will and partnership between the civic sector, the industry that is to fortify, and the government that is to mandate and regulate.

FFI: What are the greatest challenges you have encountered in planning or implementing fortification programs? And how did you address those challenges?

Peña-Rosas: It is critical to have all stakeholders convinced that the program is needed and will be of benefit for everyone. When there is mistrust or a lack of commitment among stakeholders, it is difficult for the program to succeed.

FFI: What can we do as a society to continue strengthening fortification efforts?

Peña-Rosas: Empowering communities and individuals, which is a key component of primary health care and also key in food fortification as a public health strategy. It is important to address any perceived barriers to the program and discuss it with local opinion leaders.

This interview is part of the #FFI20 Champions campaign, a celebration of fortification heroes who have helped build a smarter, stronger, and healthier world by strengthening fortification programs over the past 20 years. To read interviews with other champions, visit the #FFI20 Champions campaign homepage.