SCHENECTADY — A local company that fortifies food with vitamins and minerals has started a new venture to combat malnutrition around the world, officials announced on Monday.

Fortitech, which has a headquarters in the Riverside Technology Park off Maxon Road Extension, launched World Initiative for Nutrition last week. WIN will work with governments, ingredient suppliers, local food mills and manufacturers to add nutrients to food regularly consumed in regions hard-hit by malnutrition, company spokesman Patrick Morris said.

“We are trying to eliminate and lessen malnutrition issues,” Morris said. “We will work as the catalyst to bring together a food manufacturer, say in a region in Africa, and GAIN or a United Nations food program to map out the best course of action for the region.” GAIN is the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

An estimated 2 billion people suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies worldwide, Morris said. They live primarily in Asia, Africa and South and Central America.

Fortitech is already providing technical expertise to several fortification programs in Asia and in Africa and also supplies the World Food Program with high-quality micronutrient premixes for the fortified cereal-based food distributed through its programs.

Through WIN, the company will now dedicate resources with the sole purpose of fighting malnutrition, Fortitech President and CEO Walt Borisenok said.

“As a responsible corporate citizen, we take the point of view as to what we can do to help reduce the number of people affected by malnutrition and the health conditions that manifest themselves due to inadequate nutrition,” Borisenok said.

Francoise Chome will serve as director of WIN. She formerly worked for the GAIN Foundation, where she was responsible for launching and maintaining multiple food fortification programs, reaching over 280 million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“The message we want to convey through WIN is that nutrition is not the problem, it is the solution,” Chome said in a news release. “Food fortification not only impacts the health of the individual, but the health and economic well-being of the nations and communities to which they belong.”

Fortitech moved to the city-owned technology park in 1995 from Rotterdam. Within a short time, it put two additions on the headquarters facility, bringing the total space there to 103,000 square feet. Several years later it acquired a nearly 18,000-square-foot structure.

Fortitech has since outgrown both facilities, and is building a $4.5 million distribution center on land formerly owned by Schenectady County at the county airport in Glenville.