Ekspert: Lav dog den ernæringsrige gode kost i de lande, hvor kriser rammer – kan nemt lade sig gøre
MEDFORD, USA, 6 June 2011 (IRIN): 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 (fedtet) paste made from peanuts and milk powder and fortified (styrket(peppet op) 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).
(Aflatoxiner er de stærkeste, naturlige kræftfremkaldende stoffer. De dannes af en mugsvamp, som vokser på bl.a. tørrede figner, jordnødder og majs. Aflatoxiner fremkalder leverkræft hos forsøgsdyr som mus, rotter, fisk, ænder og aber. Ved indtagelse omdannes aflatoxin af enzymerne i levercellerne og binder sig efterfølgende til DNA, red.).
– 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 (svampe) 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 (kikærter) to bring the costs of RUTF down.
Jean Herve Bradol, the former president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), 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 (kopi-medicin) 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
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