Section 3Sec./Art. 3

Purposes. The purposes of this Act are to:

a. contribute to the elimination of micronutrient malnutrition in the country, particularly iodine deficiency disorders, through the cost-effective preventive measure of salt iodization;

b. require all producers/manufacturers of food-grade salt to iodize the salt that they produce, manufacture, import, trade or distribute;

c. require the Department of Health (DOH) to undertake the salt iodization program and for its Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD), to set and enforce standards for food-grade iodized salt and to monitor compliance thereof by the food-grade salt manufacturers;

d. require the local government units (LGUs), through their health officers and nutritionists/dietitians, or in their absence through their sanitary inspectors, to check and monitor the quality of food-grade salt being sold in their market in order to ascertain that such salt is properly iodized;

e. require the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to regulate and monitor trading of iodized salt;

f. direct the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), in collaboration with the Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC), to initiate, promote, and cause the transfer of technology for salt iodization;

g. authorize the National Nutrition Council (NNC), the policy-making and coordinating body on nutrition, to serve as the advisory board on salt iodization;

h. provide mechanisms and incentives for the local salt industry in the production, marketing, and distribution of iodized salt; and

i. ensure the sustainability of salt iodization program.