OBJECTIVES: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) among infants and toddlers is a considerable public health concern in India. The objective of this study is to estimate the contribution on the reduction of the burden in IDA of currently used fortified infant food using standard health economic models as well as estimating the number needed to treat to reduce IDA. METHODS: The estimated annual social cost of IDA in children 6-23 months in India in 2010 was 23.8 billion US dollars and 6.9 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) [Plessow et al 2015]. Using the same standard health economic model for defining the burden of disease we estimated the contribution of the current fortification strategy on the reduction using estimates of efficacy from systematic reviews of clinical trials of fortified versus not fortified infant cereals [Eichler et al 2012] and effectiveness from national health survey association (real world evidence) [Prieto et al 2015]. RESULTS: Preliminary results suggest that current consumption already reduces the annual burden of iron deficiency anemia by 1,401 million USD and 569 thousand DALYs using the systematic review scenarios. Nutritional epidemiology results indicate a lower (due to lower compliance) but still highly significant reduction of 461 million USD and 182 thousand DALYs. Focusing only on current consumers this represent around 50% reduction of the health burden (in DALYs) and 36% reduction of the monetary losses for the first scenario. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis demonstrates that scaling up consumption of fortified foods could potentially contribute further to alleviate the burden of IDA. Governments should consider commercial food fortification strategies along with interventions to increase awareness of micronutrient health since these are responsive to societal needs. This is especially relevant in India since supplementation programs so far have had limited effectiveness.