PLUMPY’NUT® … GIVING BACK LIFE
NUTELLA – THE chocolate spread loved by children and adults alike across the world was the inspiration behind a lifesaving development in the 1990’s to treat children suffering from malnutrition.
André Briend, a French paediatric nutritionist was frustrated while working in Malawi and other faminestricken countries at the limitations of the treatments available for children suffering from malnutrition.
The treatments of the time mainly consisted of a diet of milk powder mixed with oil and sugar, as well as vitamins and minerals. Although it worked well, it had to be mixed with clean water which is difficult to find for families displaced due to war or famine and when available, it was often contaminated during mixing.
The story goes that Briend, while having breakfast one morning, on reading the ingredient list on the back of a jar of Nutella had a light bulb moment of mixing F100; a highenergy milk fortified with vitamins and minerals, with peanuts, oil, and sugar. But the real advancement was in the formulation where he worked alongside a French food processor, Michel Lesanne.
Together they developed a nutritious paste where the nutrients were insulated from oxygen and humidity and packaged in one dose-foil sachets. It required no mixing or refrigeration, and with a taste similar to peanut butter, it was very palatable for children.
His recipe for this Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Food (RUTF) was more commonly known as Plumpy’Nut® and radically changed how children were treated for severe malnutrition.
Previously, mothers had to stay in health centres for long periods with their sick child for treatment, leaving behind their families. Now following an assessment at a clinic, they are provided with a supply of RUTF to treat their malnourished child in their own home.
With nearly half of all deaths of children under 5 due to deficits in nutrition, RUTF has an over 90% success rate in treating children and bringing them back from the brink of death.
UNICEF IS THE LARGEST SUPPLIER OF READY-TO-USE THERAPEUTIC FOOD
UNICEF PROCURES and supplies almost 75% - 80% of the world’s RUTF from its twenty or so trusted suppliers around the world.
With a shelf-life of up to two years, buffer stocks are stored and prepositioned in warehouses in the event of a humanitarian crisis or war.
As the lead agency for child nutrition, UNICEF works alongside governments and other agencies on the ground to supply RUTF and in the implementation of community-based management food programmes.
This includes supporting and training of staff, early identification of malnutrition as well as the monitoring and evaluation of child food programmes.
UNICEF NUTRITION PROGRAMMES AT WORK
ONE SUCH programme is in Chad where UNICEF has been working since 1961. The children of Chad are the second most vulnerable
on the planet to the extremes of climate change. Just two years ago, in mid-2022, the country was battered with two solid months of torrential rain.
It caused massive damage to infrastructure and agriculture and when the two rivers that surround the capital N’Djamena burst their banks, a food and nutrition state of emergency was called.
With the war in Ukraine, there was little media coverage, but UNICEF was on the ground and funded the setting up and coordination of nutrition programmes, reaching over 334,000 under-six children suffering from malnutrition.
And Plumpy’Nut®; this small foil packet of peanut paste which André Briend developed was used to bring children in Chad back from the brink.
And right now, in northern Gaza, the situation is catastrophic where one in six children under the age of two are acutely malnourished. UNICEF’s intervention is vital to deliver enough lifesaving supplies of RUTF so that children can be treated.
No child should go hungry. No child should die from malnutrition, no matter where they live.
CAN YOU HELP REWRITE A CHILD’S FUTURE THROUGH A GIFT IN YOUR WILL?
LEGACY GIFTS are used to deliver nutrition programmes, invest in new technologies and lifesaving products as we did with Plumpy’Nut® over twenty years ago. Millions of children’s lives have been saved, but globally there are an estimated 45 million children under 5, suffering from wasting due to malnutrition, particularly in South Asia and Africa.
UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary funding to run its programmes and gifts in Wills are vital to reach children where the need is greatest.
If you would like to add UNICEF to your Will our charity details are below or call our Legacy Gifts
Manager – Pauline on 01 878 3000 or learn more at unicef.ie/legacy