Alleviating Childhood Malnutrition by Improved Utilization of Traditional Foods (WINFOOD)

project summary

Overall aim: to develop nutritionally improved foods for infants and young children in low-income countries, based on improved utilization of traditional foods (semi-domesticated and wild indigenous foods from uncultivated land or aquatic environment), together with improved traditional food technologies (e.g. fermentation). These foods are dubbed “WINFOODs”. The WINFOOD concept will be developed through parallel studies in the “model countries” Cambodia and Kenya. Based on the results, generic guidelines for a feasible, efficient, safe and environmentally sustainable nutritional intervention strategy for improved childhood nutrition based on improved utilisation of traditional foods will be developed. Specific objectives: The specific objectives are: 1) to identify traditional foods (review, survey); 2) to identify iron and zinc dense foods (nutrient analysis); 3) to develop culturally accepted nutrient-dense meals for children (linear programming); 4) optimise the meals for iron bioavailability (in vitro systems); 5) testing for efficacy for improving child nutritional status, and; 6) develop guidelines for dissemination through collaboration with national stakeholder groups (human intervention studies). Background: More than 10 million children die each year in developing countries, half of them due to underlying malnutrition, mainly because the typical diet lacks diversity with little vegetable and fruit, and little or no animal source foods. This diet has a low energy and nutrient density and low bioavailability of iron, zinc, and vitamin A. Present interventions for improved child nutrition are dominated by supplementation and food-fortification. The safety of iron-supplementation to children has been questioned, as it may increase morbidity and mortality. Improved diet quality is a safe and sustainable intervention. In many developing countries, the poor may already occasionally take traditional foods (wild plants, fish, mollusc, insects etc.). Through a systematic approach to improve the utilisation of nutrient dense traditional foods an underutilised source for improved child nutrition will be available. Output: Country specific and generic guidelines for the development of “WinFoods” which can be produced on household level or by SMEs.