Micronutrient deficiency is a public health problem in many developing countries despite the food-based approaches such as conventional supplementation and fortification programmes to combat it. Therein lies the importance of programmes such as biofortification, which could complement these efforts; but their applicability and continued development would be strengthened with an accurate assessment of cost effectiveness and economic impact. The disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) methodology could be a good approach for such a purpose. The objective of this chapter is to explain the DALYs methodology used to evaluate interventions in health and nutrition (e.g. biofortification) in economic terms and then apply it to the case of iron-biofortified beans in Nicaragua. Based on the relationship between micronutrient deficiency and health, the impact and cost of biofortification are estimated in economic terms based on the years of productive life lost (DALYs) as related to the biofortification of beans with iron in Nicaragua. The introduction of iron-biofortified beans in Nicaragua may save 252 to 989 years of productive lives in that country, at a unit cost ranging from US$96 to US$379 (cost-effectiveness). In monetary terms this represents a saving of US$246,000-969,000 (economic impact). The DALYs could be a useful approach for the economic assessments of nutritional interventions such as biofortification as it considers the interrelationships existing among nutrition, health and well-being. The principal constraint is the availability and quality of the information required for its application.