Look for the new Plumpy’nut

Arla Foods’ call for more dairy to be incorporated into food aid make more and more sense and the issue of global malnutrition becomes prevalent. Nowadays, the issue, as Mark Bittman recently pointed out in the New York Times, is not that of complete starvation. There are fewer people actually starving to death on the planet, although tere are still many more than we should be comfortable with. No, it has to do with poverty – people can’t afford to buy the nutrition they need. Or, they buy the wrong kinds of foods and are overweight, but still lacking essential nutrients in their diet.

And here’s where dairy comes in. A glass of milk can alleviate a lot of the lack of nutrients in populations who are lacking vitamins and minerals. If they can make peanuts, another very nutritious source, into Plumpy’nut for aid packages, then there is scope for dairy ingredients to be incorporated into those products as well. Arla’s request for dairy to be considered for those populations is a timely one. Heck, a lot of developed countries could use the addition of dairy ingredients into more products as well.

The International Milk Genomics Consortium is a good start too. It explores the how to make milk into optimised nutrition for many populations. All to the good.