Societal intervention program for Malnutrition management through indigenously produced high Energy RTE food paste

partially funded

Malnutrition is a global problem. Over 5 million children die every year due to malnutrition. In India, over 9 million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition [SAM]. Underweight children are a big problem and the condition affects 54percentage of the population who are less than 4 years of age. Stunted growth affects 52percentage of this population and 17percentage of them are wasted. This results in over 1.5 million child deaths associated with severe wasting and 3.5 million with moderate wasting every year. According to the National Family Health Survey [NFHS- 2015-2016] of India, 55percentage of children living in rural areas suffer from malnutrition compared to 45percentage of children in urban areas. Improving nutrition is widely regarded as the most effective form of aid. The high energy and protein rich, self-stable ready-to-eat food paste [RTE-FP] is a unique product technology, which is designed and developed in the Food Chemistry and Technology Laboratory, Agricultural and Food Engineering Department [AgFE] of IIT Kharagpur and produced using locally available low-cost ingredients such as maize, soyabean, peanut, milk powder and sugar etc. A PLC controlled GMPorGHP pilot scale facility of 100 kg orday production capacity has been established in AgFE Department which canbe used for the project. In this project, the target group will be SAM [6 months to 6 years], MAM & normal children [6 - 15 years], pregnant women and nourishing mothers.