Vitaminization for the restoration of public health after the Great Patriotic War and the subsequent development of fortifi cation technology in the world

In 1943, the Department of Vitamin Production Technology was organized at the Moscow Technological Institute of Food Industry, designed to ensure the vitaminization of large-tonnage food products, with the purpose to restore the health of the population, undermined by the Great Patriotic War. The relevance of vitaminization was due to the discovery of the irreplaceable role of vitamins in the human body. Large volumes of vitamins were needed, which could only be obtained through the introduction of their chemical and bioorganic synthesis. It was necessary to design, build, and commission enterprises for the production of synthetic vitamins, and engineering and technical personnel for the designed enterprises was required as well. The war was still going on, but in 1943 the department was organized, successfully solving the tasks set for organizing large-scale vitamin production in the country for the vitaminization of mass-consumption food products and laying the foundation for a current direction of activity in scientific, research, and industrial practice in Russia and worldwide.