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© Remco Bohle

International food aid today relies heavily on fortified blended foods to improve the quality of children’s diets. Over 450,000 tons of such food, mostly in the form of a fortified corn-soy blend (CSB), was distributed in 2006.

Fortified blended foods however have serious limitations at targeting malnutrition in children under the age of three:

• Fortified blended foods are not particularly dense either in calories or in nutrients.
• Even though the blends are fortified with nutrients, they rarely include all of those needed by a malnourished child, and the levels of fortification are often inadequate or inappropriate.
• In addition, the cereal and soy components have anti-nutrient factors that reduce the utility of fortification, as they make absorption of nutrients difficult.

If any of the 40 essential nutrients are deficient in a young child’s diet, it will greatly impact the function of their immune system, and their ability to resist disease. If nutritional deficiencies become intense a child will begin to waste – to consume its own tissues to obtain needed nutrients.

Deprived of essential nutrients a young child will stop growing. Those that survive are often scarred by long-term consequences that include stunted growth and developmental delays, as well as an increased risk of chronic disease and lower life expectancies as adults.

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Global burden of malnutrition