Prior to the introduction of Plumpy’nut, food aid teams had to prepare renutrition milks from scratch using drinking water on site. This increased the risk of wrong dosage due to incorrect preparation and the possibility of pathogens entering the mix through the drinking water.
Plumpy’nut solves these issues as it requires no dilution with drinking water or cooking. Plumpy’nut allows malnutrition to be treated in the home without the need for medical supervision and the long 24 month shelf life allows people at risk to be well-prepared.
There are 19 Unicef-approved producers in a wide array of countries. Some of these include countries with the highest global rates of malnutrition including Haiti, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Six of the factories in Africa are franchises of Nutriset that produce Plumpy’nut and others produce generic versions of the same product. During the 2005 famine in the Horn of Africa around 240,000 children were nourished with Plumpy’nut and the product is patented in over 35 countries.
By Olivia Gibson
Year 13