Delivering Vital Nutrients Across the Food System
Building the technology, local production and partnerships that make flour fortification simple, affordable and scalable.
A proven fix that hasn’t reached far enough
An estimated three billion people cannot afford a diet with enough of the vitamins and minerals their bodies need to grow, learn and stay healthy.1 Flour fortification is one of the most cost-effective public-health interventions available, and has been routine practice in many high-income countries for decades. Every $1 invested can return around $8 in economic benefit, through improved cognitive development, higher lifetime earnings and more productive work.2 In much of Eastern Africa, the infrastructure to deliver it has not existed.
We make flour fortification simple, affordable and scalable.
We are a non-profit social enterprise solving a problem neither the market nor government is well-placed to solve alone. We add critical nutrients to the staple flour that families across Eastern Africa already eat every day, by building the whole system that makes fortification at scale possible, from the mill to the market.
Watch On a Mission to End Hidden Hunger (Rolex Presents)
Our model
Sanku builds the whole system around flour fortification: the technology used in mills, locally produced nutrient premix, field support, commercial supply chains and government partnerships.
Together, these elements enable mills of every size to produce fortified flour reliably, at no additional cost to millers or consumers, and deliver better nutrition through the foods families already eat.
Technology that reaches the last mile
The dosing equipment that makes fortification possible at flour mills of every size, down to the smallest village mills.
Local production and the revenue that sustains it
Nutrient premix made in Eastern Africa, and commercial sales that help cover the running costs.
Government partnerships that make fortification permanent
Working with regulators, millers, and industry leaders to embed fortification into how food markets operate, so nutrition continues long after any single programme ends.
Here is how each part works in practice.
Technology that reaches the last mile
Install Dosifiers at small and medium mills
Most fortification programmes focus on large industrial mills. That leaves out the small and medium mills that serve many last-mile communities, where hidden hunger is often most severe.
Sanku was built to reach those mills. At the centre of the model is the Dosifier, an automated machine that makes fortification possible in everyday milling environments. Installed directly on a mill, it adds a precise amount of nutrients as flour is produced, making fortification part of the normal milling process.
Each Dosifier costs about $2,500 to build and install, a significant barrier for most millers. Donor support covers that upfront investment, along with installation, training, and ongoing technical support.
Once installed, a Dosifier becomes lasting nutrition infrastructure. It can operate for years, helping a mill produce fortified flour day after day and turning a one-time investment into a sustained source of better nutrition for the community it serves.
Support millers in the field
A fortifying mill network is not built through one-time installations. It requires ongoing support. A broken machine, delayed delivery, or untrained miller can halt fortification for weeks.
Sanku’s field teams train millers, install and maintain equipment, deliver nutrients, troubleshoot issues, and support compliance with national standards. Regional distribution hubs across Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia keep inputs moving and response times short.
Much of this work happens behind the scenes. It is also what makes fortification reliable at scale.
Monitor reach in real time
Most fortification programmes estimate reach through surveys or industry data. Sanku measures it directly.
Each Dosifier transmits production data through a cellular connection to our monitoring system. We can see how much flour is being fortified, how much premix is being used, and whether equipment is operating as expected.
For small and medium mills, Dosifier data underpins our reach calculations. For large mills, reach is modelled from premix supplied. Across both segments, the underlying production data is observed, not surveyed.
The result is greater visibility across the network and greater confidence in the impact we report.
From poultry farmer to nutrition entrepreneur
Madam Joyness runs a mill in a low-income part of Dar es Salaam, where maize flour is a daily staple. She is one of more than 1,239 millers in Sanku’s network across Tanzania. By fortifying the flour she produces with essential vitamins and minerals, she adds back what many local diets are missing.
Her business makes nutrition and livelihood work together. The flour from her mill feeds local families, and the bran left over from milling feeds her poultry. Better nutrition for her community, lower feed costs for her business, and nothing wasted.
Watch A Dosifier installed at a Dar es Salaam mill
Local production and the revenue that sustains it
Watch Take a tour of our nutrient blending factory
Produce and sell nutrient premix from Eastern Africa
Every miller, large or small, needs a reliable supply of nutrient premix, the vitamins and minerals added to flour during fortification. Without it, fortification stops.
Historically, premix has been imported into Eastern Africa, making it costly, vulnerable to supply disruptions, and difficult to quality control.
To solve this, Sanku built Eastern Africa’s first nutrient premix factory in Tanzania in 2024 (made possible by a 2021 unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott), followed by a second in Ethiopia in 2026. Local production makes premix supply more sustainable. It creates local jobs, improves quality, controls cost, and protects supply across the region.
Small and medium mills receive premix through Sanku’s bundled commercial model (see below), where flour bag sales effectively neutralise the cost of premix. Large mills purchase premix directly at prices competitive with imports. Those sales generate revenue that helps fund operations, expand the network, and reduce reliance on donor funding over time.
Manufacture and sell flour bags that subsidise small-mill fortification
Most families across Eastern Africa cannot afford to pay more for fortified flour. Nor should they. Good nutrition is a basic human right. So Sanku built a model that allows mills to fortify without increasing the price consumers pay.
Mills need empty flour bags to package and sell their product. Sanku manufactures and sells those bags, using the margin to effectively neutralise the cost of premix for the same mill. The result is fortified flour at no additional cost to families.
The distinctive pink Sanku bag also helps millers stand out in local markets through stronger branding and packaging.
Government partnerships that make fortification permanent
Partner with governments to strengthen fortification systems
Fortification at scale requires more than technology and nutrients. It requires strong systems.
We work with governments, regulators, industry bodies, and technical partners to strengthen the infrastructure that makes fortification possible. That includes training inspectors, supporting laboratory capacity, improving monitoring systems, addressing substandard premix in the market, and helping align national standards with what mills can reliably deliver.
Our goal is not simply to build a successful organisation. It is to help build a system where fortified flour becomes the norm, regardless of whether Sanku is involved.
Why our model works at scale
Reaches last-mile mills
Works in rural and underserved communities.
No extra cost to families
Fortified flour is sold at the same price as regular flour.
No behaviour change required
Families eat the same foods they already know and trust.
Commercial revenue lowers costs over time
As sales grow, unit costs fall and more mills can be reached.
Real-time monitoring
Data from the Dosifier network enables timely action.
Works across countries and mill sizes
Built to scale across different contexts and markets.
Our reach, and how we measure it
How these metrics are measured
People reached: Sanku estimates reach based on fortified flour produced by partner mills, using premix supplied and Dosifier data.
Dosifiers installed: Sanku’s IoT fortification machines deployed at partner mills.
Partner mills enabled: mills equipped or supported to fortify flour through Sanku’s technology, premix, or training.
Net donor cost per person: the annual donor cost of sustaining fortification for the people Sanku currently reaches, after commercial revenue from premix and flour-bag sales covers part of operating costs. This is a measure of sustainability: what it takes to keep fortification running at today’s scale. It is kept separate, on purpose, from the cost of growing the system. It excludes the investments donors fund to build the next phase, such as R&D, purchasing new Dosifiers, expanding into new countries and building new factories.
How philanthropy and revenue fund our work
Donor funding builds the infrastructure the market would not build on its own: the Dosifier technology, premix factories, country teams, government partnerships, training programmes, food-safety systems, and the early work of bringing each new mill into the network.
As the network grows, the commercial side covers more of the running costs. Together, bag sales to small and medium mills and premix sales to big industrial mills covered around a third of Sanku’s operating costs in 2026, and the share rises each year. Net donor cost per person has fallen from $0.55 in 2023 to $0.10 in 2026, a function of both scale and the growing commercial base. Sanku is on track to operational breakeven for the commercial supply chain.
The model is designed to reduce long-term dependence on donor funding. Philanthropy builds the infrastructure. Commercial revenue helps keep it running.
Built and run from Eastern Africa
All of this work is built and run from Eastern Africa. Sanku has 140 staff, 96% of whom are Eastern African nationals, and 86% of senior leaders are from and based in the region.
We intentionally hire from the communities we serve, creating a model built on proximate leadership. Country operations are led by local teams who know their mills, regulators, and communities firsthand. They speak the languages, navigate the regulatory environment, and manage the relationships that make fortification work every day.
This local ownership is one of Sanku’s greatest strengths. It makes our model more effective today and more durable as we expand into new countries.
Help build the next phase of fortification
The model works. The next phase is scaling it.
- Around three billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2019. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021. fao.org ↩
- This estimate relates specifically to correcting iron deficiency through food fortification, which a Copenhagen Consensus analysis estimated had an 8:1 benefit-cost ratio (at a 3% discount rate). Benefits include improved cognitive ability and adult work capacity; the same analysis identifies reduced maternal and newborn deaths as additional benefits not counted in that ratio. Horton S, Mannar V, Wesley A, Best Practice Paper: Food Fortification with Iron and Iodine, Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2008. copenhagenconsensus.com ↩