Dr. Avery Dickins de Girón, Assistant Director for the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Vanderbilt University has provided a summary of a very exciting project to alleviate malnutrition in Guatemala via a locally sourced nutrition product. Link for Health is very proud to have Avery as a member of our Advisory Board.
The GuateNut project seeks to alleviate pre-existing malnutrition in Guatemala and work to prevent full-blown malnutrition through early treatment, and to do so through local-sourcing of agricultural products that will provide local economic benefits. This is a collaborative effort of the Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), Project Pyramid, the HARP Foundation, and Primeros Pasos.
The goal is to produce a locally-sourced, peanut-based product to help combat childhood malnutrition in Guatemala. Guatemala has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world, and over 20% of children have stunted growth.
A similar product, PlumpyNut, manufactured by a privately held French company (Nutriset), is widely used in Africa and around the world. The PlumpyNut paste has recently begun to be imported to Guatemala.
Yet, all of the key ingredients for such a Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) or Ready To Use Supplemental Food (RUSF) are readily available in Guatemala. These are peanuts, powdered sugar, powdered milk, and vegetable oil (in addition to a vitamin and mineral supplement sourced in the U.S.).
Locally sourcing the ingredients not only addresses malnutrition but provides economic opportunities for local development. Farmers will have another market for their products, production and distribution will employ local workers, and these activities should seed other entrepreneurial ventures.
Our short-term goal is to produce a RUTF or RUSF either in paste or cookie form that is appealing to the Guatemalan palate and marketed in a way that does not mark it as medicinal. The paste form will be the most expedient route, although there are unique packaging concerns. A cookie form would likely have quicker take-up among the target population, but cooking may result in the degradation of certain vitamins.
Our initial market would be USAID, and Guatemalan NGOs such as Primeros Pasos and Wuqu’ Kawoq.
Our longer term goal is to produce a energy bar-like product that would have all of the nutritional benefits and yet being appealing enough to be sold in stores and markets. This product would be branded much like U.S. power bars, and the revenue stream would subsidize production of the therapeutic products.
We are working to adapt the product to a cookie form according to local preferences and have had successful prototype efforts thus far. Initial distribution will be done in the clinical setting at the Primeros Pasos clinic in Quetzaltenango.
To learn more about local production of RTUF products, click here for an article by Mark J. Manary of the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
The GuateNut project seeks to alleviate pre-existing malnutrition in Guatemala and work to prevent full-blown malnutrition through early treatment, and to do so through local-sourcing of agricultural products that will provide local economic benefits. This is a collaborative effort of the Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), Project Pyramid, the HARP Foundation, and Primeros Pasos.
The goal is to produce a locally-sourced, peanut-based product to help combat childhood malnutrition in Guatemala. Guatemala has one of the highest malnutrition rates in the world, and over 20% of children have stunted growth.
A similar product, PlumpyNut, manufactured by a privately held French company (Nutriset), is widely used in Africa and around the world. The PlumpyNut paste has recently begun to be imported to Guatemala.
Yet, all of the key ingredients for such a Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) or Ready To Use Supplemental Food (RUSF) are readily available in Guatemala. These are peanuts, powdered sugar, powdered milk, and vegetable oil (in addition to a vitamin and mineral supplement sourced in the U.S.).
Locally sourcing the ingredients not only addresses malnutrition but provides economic opportunities for local development. Farmers will have another market for their products, production and distribution will employ local workers, and these activities should seed other entrepreneurial ventures.
Our short-term goal is to produce a RUTF or RUSF either in paste or cookie form that is appealing to the Guatemalan palate and marketed in a way that does not mark it as medicinal. The paste form will be the most expedient route, although there are unique packaging concerns. A cookie form would likely have quicker take-up among the target population, but cooking may result in the degradation of certain vitamins.
Our initial market would be USAID, and Guatemalan NGOs such as Primeros Pasos and Wuqu’ Kawoq.
Our longer term goal is to produce a energy bar-like product that would have all of the nutritional benefits and yet being appealing enough to be sold in stores and markets. This product would be branded much like U.S. power bars, and the revenue stream would subsidize production of the therapeutic products.
We are working to adapt the product to a cookie form according to local preferences and have had successful prototype efforts thus far. Initial distribution will be done in the clinical setting at the Primeros Pasos clinic in Quetzaltenango.
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