Newsletter No. 5

Holiday greetings and update from IZiNCG!

Resources

New Technical Brief: A Field-friendly Method for Measuring Dietary Phytic Acid Species in Plant-based Foods

This Technical Brief describes a low-tech, low-cost polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) method for measuring phytic acid, and provides a comparison to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The brief is based on this paper and is accompanied by a Practical Tips document describing the method in more detail.

Upcoming Technical Brief: Comparison of Laboratory Instrument Types for Analysis of Plasma or Serum Zinc Concentration

Watch this space for our final Technical Brief of the year. This brief summarizes our recently completed laboratory study involving labs in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Switzerland and the USA.

IZiNCG is on Twitter and LinkedIn!

Join the conversation on Twitter (@IZiNCG_) and LinkedIn.

Zinc Fortification Task Force

IZiNCG has been working with partners GAIN and FFI in our Zinc Fortification Task Force since July 2019. Our systematic review titled Effects of zinc-fortified foods on health and functional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis was submitted for publication in November 2020.

We have also conducted key informant interviews with country representatives to better understand barriers and enabling factors behind zinc fortification. We hope to initiate a new set of activities, informed by our findings, in the new year.

Research projects

ZiPT trial: Publications underway!

Dr. Munirul Islam (icddr,b) presented the preliminary findings from our Zinc in Powders Trial (ZiPT) at IZiNCG’s sponsored symposium at the Micronutrient Forum CONNECTED conference. Various manuscripts are currently in preparation and will be published in the coming months. Read more about the trial in our blog here, and in the protocol here.

Multiply-fortified salt study about to start

COVID-19 has posed many challenges for this study. However, we are pleased that field work for the initial phase of formative research has finally begun. Read more about the project in this blog.

Read more on our IZiNCG Research Projects page.

Recent publications

We aim to update our page on recent zinc publications on a monthly basis. Please contact secretariat@izincg.org with news of upcoming publications!

Get in touch if you would like to write a guest blog on a zinc-related topic!

Advocacy efforts

Micronutrient biomarker assessment in national surveys

IZiNCG keeps track of published data on plasma/serum zinc concentrations in national surveys and surveillance systems. Please keep us posted with any relevant news regarding upcoming surveys.

Our report Inclusion of Micronutrient Biomarkers in National Surveys and Surveillance Systems: Barriers and Enablers will be out soon. IZiNCG is also represented on the Core Working Group of the Micronutrient Forum’s Micronutrient Data Generation Initiative.

Conferences

If you attended the Micronutrient Forum CONNECTED conference, our Symposium Advancing efforts to improve zinc nutrition globally will be available on demand for a year! We will do our best to advertise upcoming conferences with relevance to zinc nutrition on our conference page, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Please contact us on secretariat@izincg.org about upcoming virtual conferences and webinars.

Get in touch!

Please contact secretariat@izincg.org with your thoughts and ideas, or if you would like to share your research or programmatic findings related to zinc on our website.