Monitoring and estimation of iodine content of edible salt in urban areas of Meerut district, after four decades of Universal Salt Iodization

Objective: It is estimated that 200 million people in India are exposed to the risk of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). To protect future generations, Universal Salt Iodization (USI) is the mainstay of the intervention. So, we carried out the study to estimate salt iodine content at the house hold and retail level in urban areas of Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh. Method: A total no of 64 (48 from house hold and 16 from retail) samples of salt were estimated by iodometric titration method for the iodine content. Legal requirement for iodine level in India ranges from 30 parts per million (ppm) at retail level and 15ppm at consumer level. Results: We found that at retail level the range of concentrations of iodine in salt samples from Shiv Kunj, Krishna Vihar, Yadav colony, Ratan nagar. At retail level the range of concentration of iodine in salt sample was 26.5 to 33.6 ppm, 28.8 to 34.6 ppm, 31.3 to 36.8 ppm, 29.6 to 32.6 ppm respectively, while at house hold level were 12.7 to 34.6 ppm, 15.1 to 33.9 ppm, 15.8 to 38.4 ppm, 15.2 to 29.6 ppm respectively. Conclusion: Our study reveals a positive new momentum that reflects changes in India's salt industry. These changes include better production, better refining and iodization practices, improvement in salt quality, improvement to packaging, effective monitoring to iodine levels from production to consumption and better consumer awareness in the urban areas. Key words - Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD), Iodometric titration, Universal Salt, Iodization (USI), Urinary Iodine (UI)