Peanut-Based Therapeutic Food
Imagine a peanut-based paste that packs around 500 calories and nearly 13 grams of protein. It’s stored in a small 92-gram pouch, designed for easy consumption by malnourished infants in crisis zones. With no need for water or refrigeration, this paste can be distributed in drought-stricken areas and has a shelf life of up to two years. Just a couple of pouches a day can promote a 10 percent weight gain within six weeks, helping to combat severe acute malnutrition at a cost of under $60 per child. Astonishingly, saving a life can be achieved for only 71 cents a serving.
This life-saving product is called Plumpy’Nut. It was developed by a company in Normandy, Nutriset, in 1996, led by French pediatrician André Briend, and it became the first ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF). These energy-dense pastes have significantly improved survival rates for children suffering from severe acute malnutrition—from below 25 percent to approximately 90 percent.
Plumpy’Nut has been credited with saving millions of lives. “It’s incredibly effective emergency food,” states Dr. Steve Collins, who founded the advocacy group Valid Nutrition. “RUTF contains all the essential nutrients needed for recovery from severe acute malnutrition. They’re easy to transport, very energy-dense, and don’t require refrigeration or clean water to be effective.”
While Nutriset’s creation was groundbreaking, it’s not the only player in the market. For instance, Mana produces an American-made RUTF in Fitzgerald, Georgia. They claim to be able to manufacture 500,000 pounds of their product daily—enough to fill four shipping containers and support 10 million children annually.
Prior to the introduction of Plumpy’Nut, children under five diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition required constant care at specialized feeding centers. Nurses in these often remote facilities would feed infants a high-energy milk powder called F100, also produced by Nutriset. However, these centers often had issues with contamination. “There was always a risk that water would be unsafe and cause illness,” says Collins, which contributed to mortality rates for in-patient care being around 20 percent.
Over half of Plumpy’Nut comprises peanut paste and vegetable oils. Peanuts provide fat-soluble nutrients, proteins, energy, and fatty acids that are essential for recovery. Almost a quarter consists of skimmed milk powder, which includes vital proteins and amino acids. The remaining portion is sugar, which helps mask the taste of the added micronutrients such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, iodine, copper, selenium, and various vitamins.
The story behind Plumpy’Nut is somewhat legendary, often linked to Briend’s inspiration from a jar of Nutella. However, it actually stemmed from Briend’s practical experience in the Sahel, where traditional water-based solutions were failing, and infants continued to suffer. Collaborating with Nutriset’s Michel Lescanne, he sought to blend F100 with peanuts—a staple crop abundant in malnourished regions—mixed with oil and sugar.
