MALNUTRITION: Pakistan: Chickpea to fight child malnutrition

03 June 2011
The World Food Programme has turned to the local chickpea to treat young children suffering from malnutrition. Served as ready-to-use, the food will be distributed in government health centres in four provinces in Pakistan.

Quetta: Ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) have become an important weapon in fighting child malnutrition, since their early development in Malawi, and subsequent endorsement by major NGOs and UN agencies.
A new variant in production in Pakistan replaces a key ingredient, peanuts, with chick peas which saves money, stimulates the local economy and fits better with local tastes, according to the World Food Programme.



Child malnutrition is a long-standing problem in Pakistan, and according to the World Bank the number of children who are underweight or stunted "is of particular concern since Pakistan has long been considered self-sufficient in diverse agriculture produce and refined foods."
A study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) early this year, following the devastating floods of 2010, found "critical levels" of malnutrition among flood-affected children. It also found significant evidence that malnutrition, one manifestation of acute poverty and deprivation, was linked to feudalism and the country’s class structure.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing a chickpea-based RUTF, known as "Wawa Mum" or "Good food, Mum". The fortified paste is more acceptable to local people than those prepared with peanut butter, a food item rarely used in the country.
The paste contains a rich vitamin and mineral formulation blended with the cooked chick peas and each packet is designed to meet the daily nutrient requirements of children in the targeted age group.

Rich in nutrients
"The chickpea paste is being distributed to children suffering from moderate malnutrition. It comes ready to use, in 50-gram packets, is produced locally and is meant for children aged 6-36 months and suffering from moderate malnutrition," WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal told IRIN.
Three factories are currently processing 200 tons per month which is enough for four million packets of the paste. The WFP hopes to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1,000 tons by the end of the year, by contracting two additional factories.
The foods, he added, had been provided in four provinces through NGO partners and treatment centres such as government-run Basic Health Units (BHUs) since September 2010, when the post flood situation led to a greater focus on nutrition. Doctors and health workers at government health centres and those working with NGOs identify children in need of dietary supplementation.
"It is not uncommon to spot malnourished children in communities everywhere," Faisel Aziz, who volunteers with the charitable Edhi Foundation in Balochistan, told IRIN.
WFP reports that the chick pea formulation may soon be available in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Ethiopia
http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/chickpea-to-fight-child-malnutrition-in-pakistan

MALNUTRITION: AID POLICY: Call for local manufacture of nutrition-rich foods

MEDFORD, USA, 6 June 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: Georgina Cranston/UNICEF
Plumpy'Nut destined for Southern Sudan

Why ship-in nutrition-rich foods from abroad to treat malnourished children when they can be made locally, at a fraction of the cost?
Nutrition expert Steve Collins believes it is not only a waste of money for aid agencies to import ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) manufactured in Europe or the USA, but also a lost opportunity to develop an added-value local manufacturing capacity.
Collins points out that developing countries such as Botswana and India have developed their own RUTF but many aid agencies, including the UN, prefer to buy branded RUTF manufactured abroad such as Plumpy'nut - a lipid paste made from peanuts and milk powder and fortified with vitamins and minerals proven to be effective in treating severe acute malnutrition.
Part of the reason for this was that similar peanut pastes produced in poor countries do not meet the stringent UN requirements on aflatoxin content, which it has set at a maximum of five parts per billion (ppb).
“You can sit in the US and eat food with aflatoxin content of 20 ppb, but if a peanut paste made in Malawi has an aflatoxin content of even 10 ppb it will not be approved by the UN agencies [for use in an intervention programme run by them],” said Collins, addressing a panel discussion at the World Conference on Humanitarian Studies at Tufts University, Medford, USA, on the opportunities in scaling up nutrient-rich food aid.
As a result the cost of product manufacture goes up. Ingredients such as milk powder also add to the costs.
Aflatoxin is produced by a species of fungus which contaminates the peanuts after they are harvested and can affect the liver and even cause cancer. Moderate levels of aflatoxin can moderate a child’s growth. International food standards allow for a maximum of 10-20 ppb of aflatoxin.
NGOs are experimenting with other locally available protein sources such as chickpea to bring the costs of RUTF down.
Jean Herve Bradol, the former president of Médecins Sans Frontières, suggested during the discussion that perhaps a headline-grabbing campaign, similar to those which led to the eradication of small-pox and the manufacture and use of generic antiretrovirals to treat HIV, was needed to create a momentum to tackle malnutrition.
These efforts would help to find a way towards cheaper and more sustainable alternatives.
Maria Kasparian, who heads Edesia, an NGO set up in the USA by Nutriset, the manufacturers of Plumpy’nut, said they were collaborating with partners in developing countries to produce RUTF locally.

Effective distribution networks
Mark Moore, a manufacturer of RUTF in the USA who was trying to set up a plant in Rwanda, said local manufacturers would not be able to handle the distribution networks required to scale-up operations.
He suggested partnerships with private sector multinationals, which have good distribution networks even in remote corners of Africa, such as soft drinks manufacturers.
Bradol pointed out that multinationals are not altruistic and the product would still be unaffordable for the poor. “Price will always be a factor,” he said.
In a commentary in the February 2011 edition of the journal of the World Public Health Nutrition Association, Michael Latham of Cornell University’s nutritional sciences division, and Urban Jonsson, the former chief of nutrition at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and others caution that the debate around commercial RUTF as a “miracle” cure could distract attention from “rational and sustainable policies and programmes” such as the promotion of breastfeeding.
“As things now are, 'scaled-up' delivery of commercial or foreign 'packages' of nutrition interventions is being aggressively promoted, inside the UN, and outside by major governments, their agencies, foundations, and other big NGOs. Branded, commercial RUTF is now part of these packages," the authors noted.
“In contrast, the promotion of community-based and local government-supported empowerment of people living in poverty to claim their human rights to good nutrition, which is the rational way forward, is neglected.”
Even severe acute malnutrition can be treated with local foods. The authors noted India’s refusal to allow UNICEF to import commercial RUTFs in 2009. About 49 percent of the world’s malnourished children live in India. The authors said: “For decades good Indian hospitals have successfully treated severe acute malnutrition with local foods, comparable to the sugar, casein, oil and milk commonly used in Africa.”

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=92913

MALNUTRITION: Pakistan: Chickpea replaces peanut in new supplementary food recipe

June 03, 2011

Ready-to-use foods have become an important weapon in fighting child malnutrition, since their early development in Malawi, and subsequent endorsement by major NGOs and UN agencies.
A new variant in production in Pakistan replaces a key ingredient, peanuts, with chick peas which saves money, stimulates the local economy and fits better with local tastes, according to the World Food Programme.
Child malnutrition is a long-standing problem in Pakistan, and according to the World Bank the number of children who are underweight or stunted “is of particular concern since Pakistan has long been considered self-sufficient in diverse agriculture produce and refined foods”.
A study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) early this year, following the devastating floods of 2010, found “critical levels” of malnutrition among flood-affected children. It also found significant evidence that malnutrition, one manifestation of acute poverty and deprivation, was linked to feudalism and the country’s class structure.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is distributing a chickpea-based ready-to-eat supplementary food, known as “Wawa Mum” or “Good food, Mum”. The fortified paste is more acceptable to local people than those prepared with peanut butter, a food item rarely used in the country. [Note: the original version of this article - and its headline -wrongly referred to Wawa Mum as a therapeutic food, but it is better described as a supplementary food].
The paste contains a rich vitamin and mineral formulation blended with the cooked chick peas and each packet is designed to meet the daily nutrient requirements of children in the targeted age group.
“The chickpea paste is being distributed to children suffering from moderate malnutrition. It comes ready to use, in 50-gram packets, is produced locally and is meant for children aged 6-36 months and suffering from moderate malnutrition,” WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal told IRIN.
Three factories are currently processing 200 tons per month which is enough for four million packets of the paste. The WFP hopes to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1,000 tons by the end of the year, by contracting two additional factories.
The foods, he added, had been provided in four provinces through NGO partners and treatment centres such as government-run Basic Health Units (BHUs) since September 2010, when the post flood situation led to a greater focus on nutrition. Doctors and health workers at government health centres and those working with NGOs identify children in need of dietary supplementation.
“It is not uncommon to spot malnourished children in communities everywhere,” Faisel Aziz, who volunteers with the charitable Edhi Foundation in Balochistan, told IRIN.
WFP reports that the chick pea formulation may soon be available in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Ethiopia.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&idsub=128&id=54944&t=Pakistan%3A+++Chickpea+replaces+peanut+in+new+supplementary+food+recipe

MALNUTRITION:UN chick pea vitamin paste battling malnutrition in Pakistan

 Shane Starling, 22-Feb-2011

A vitamin and nutrient-rich chick pea paste developed by United Nations scientists is helping in the fight against infant malnutrition in Pakistan.
 
"Good food mum!"
Wawa Mum chick pea paste is helping improve infant nutrition in Pakistan
The problem increased dramatically last year as flood waters ravaged large parts of the country, prompting researchers at the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to try and develop local solutions.
They came up with ‘Wawa Mum’ (literally ‘good food mum’) – a 50g mineral and vitamin-fortified paste meeting a host of daily nutrient requirements and derived from locally-sourced chick peas.
“Wawa Mum has a number of advantages during emergency situations like the floods in Pakistan,” said Dominique Frankefort, deputy director of WFP’s operations in Pakistan. “It’s light, you can eat it immediately and it’s made right here in Pakistan from an ingredient that people know and like.”
Wawa Mum is being manufactured in three factories processing 200 tonnes per month which is enough for four million sachets of the paste.
“We hope to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1000 tonnes by the end of the year. In order to do that, we’ll be contracting two more factories between now and December.”

Aid faster, cheaper
Frankefort said the paste offered nutrition-providing potential beyond that of traditional humanitarian aid routes.
“At the onset of emergencies, we often have problem getting as much of these products as we need,” said Frankefort. “They’re also expensive and have to be shipped, which adds to the cost and to the amount it takes to get them where they’re needed.”
“The other ready-to-eat foods (RTFs) we use are mostly peanut pastes. So it occurred to me that if we could find a similar ingredient more available in places like India and Pakistan, then we could develop our own product right where we needed it.”
Because the chick pea is local and in abundant supply, it is also 10 per cent cheaper than other RTFs developed by the WFP.
Chick pea is popular in Pakistan and other Asian countries where it is the base of dishes like chana masala and humus.
Other WFP nutrition solutions include fortified powder blends derived from cereals, soya, beans and pulses; tubs and sachets derived from vegetable fat, dry skimmed milk, malt dextrin, sugar and whey; high energy biscuits; micronutrient powders containing 16 vitamins and minerals, and fortified compressed food bars.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/UN-chick-pea-vitamin-paste-battling-malnutrition-in-Pakistan

MALNUTRITION: Chickpeas: Homespun Response To Malnutrition Deployed In Pakistan

17 Feb 2011 An innovative new food product made entirely in Pakistan is helping to protect the youngest of that country's flood victims from malnutrition. Made from locally grown chickpeas, Wawa Mumshows that supplying technical knowhow can be the key to finding local solutions to malnutrition. Watch video
 As Pakistan recovers from the floods which forced millions of people from their homes last summer, thousands of affected children are receiving the nutrition they need thanks to rations of a nutritious chickpea paste produced at factories within their own country.
The paste, designed by WFP nutritionists and called Wawa Mum, is the latest addition to WFP's toolbox of specialised food products. It wraps a day's worth of vitamins and nutrients into a single 50-gram serving and can be eaten straight from the packet.
"Wawa Mum has a number of advantages during emergency situations like the floods in Pakistan," explained Dominique Frankefort, Deputy Director of WFP's operations in Pakistan. "It's light, you can eat it immediately and it's made right here in Pakistan from an ingredient that people know and like."

Growing demand
According to Frankefort, the idea for Wawa Mum arose out of the growing demand and tight supply of other ready-to-eat foods (RTFs) already on the market.
"At the onset of emergencies, we often have problem getting as much of these products as we need," said Frankefort. "They're also expensive and have to be shipped, which adds to the cost and to the amount it takes to get them where they're needed."
Rather than see that as a problem, Frankefort saw it as an opportunity. "The other RTFs we use are mostly peanut pastes. So it occurred to me that if we could find a similar ingredient more available in places like India and Pakistan, then we could develop our own product right where we needed it."

"That's tasty, mom!"
That ingredient Frankefort was looking for turned out to be the chickpea, an energy-rich legume which forms the basis of countless South Asian dishes from chana masala to humus. Roasted, ground and fortified with vitamins and minerals, the final product was a nutrition-packed baby food custom tailored to local palettes.
Its very name testifies to its popularity among the Pashtun children of northwestern Pakistan, who were fed Wawa Mum when violence along the Afghan border forced their families from their homes.
In Pashto Wawa means 'good food', and wawa mum is what the children would say to their mothers when they wanted some more of this tasty new food.

A bright future
Just after Wawa Mum was developed, the catastrophic flooding across Pakistan gave rise to an urgent need for ready-to-eat foods. Six months on, three factories are now pumping out over 200 metric tons of Wawa Mum per month. That translates to around 4 million highly-nutritious meals.
But Frankefort says it's still not enough. "We hope to raise that number to 500 metric tons by June and to 1,000 metric tons by the end of the year. In order to that, we'll be contracting two more factories between now and December."
That has obvious benefits for Pakistan's food processing industry, which is creating jobs at the height of an emergency when the country needs them most.
And because Wawa Mum is produced close to where it's needed, from an ingredient cheaply available on local markets, it costs WFP around 10 per cent less than other RTFs.



Source: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-8E7JJY?OpenDocument