Nutrition expert Glen Maberly retires
Led by Glen Maberly, the Flour Fortification Initiative works with nations to add vitamins and minerals as standard milling practice.
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The Kyrgyz Republic is the latest country to require millers to fortify their flour. When the new law is implemented in June, more than 5 million people there will receive iron, folic acid, and other B vitamins through staple foods made with fortified flour.
The new law is part of the legacy created by RSPH nutrition expert Glen Maberly, who retired this year as director of the Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI) in the RSPH. Founded by Maberly in 2004, the FFI is a public/private effort to make vitamin and mineral fortification of wheat flour a standard milling practice worldwide. The number of countries with flour fortification standards has since increased from 33 to 57.
An endocrinologist by training, Maberly joined the RSPH in 1990 to help create and co-direct the Program Against Micronutrient Malnutrition, helping reduce birth defects through increased use of iodine in salt. From 1992 to 1997, he served as founding chair of what is now the Hubert Department of Global Health. He also helped recruit international nutrition expert Reynaldo Martorell to the RSPH.
"I am the beneficiary of all that Glen has brought to the department and the school," says Martorell.
FFI member Bill Dietz credits Maberly with improving nutrition for millions of people in partnership with the flour milling industry. "We've been the beneficiaries of the RSPH’s good work and students," says Dietz, director of physical activity and nutrition at the CDC.
Maberly has returned to his native Australia to establish the Center for Health Innovation and Partnership with the Sydney West Area Health Service. The new center will serve one-eighth of Australia’s population. "Life is transient and things change," Maberly told his colleagues when he retired from the RSPH. “Now you have a satellite in Sydney.”
