Researchers from Israel have created a therapeutic food from locally available ingredients that reversed malnutrition in rats, targeting regions like sub-Saharan Africa. 

Almost five million children under five years old die every year from malnutrition. Although ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUFTs), including nutrient-rich powdered milk and peanut mixture, are a standard treatment, they reach only around 30% of the population in need due to economic and supply barriers.  

Researchers at the EARA member Hebrew University of Jerusalem developed a plant-based RUTF made from chickpeas, sorghum, corn and soybeans, known as ChSMS, which had a higher and better protein and nutrient formulation compared with a milk-peanut mixture. The researchers fed rats a protein- and nutrient-deficient diet to induce malnutrition from birth and, at three-weeks old, a group started receiving a ChSMS diet while another received the milk-peanut mixture. Rats fed a ChSMS diet had a higher food intake, and a greater body weight and length three weeks after treatment, compared with the milk-peanut mixture. 

"Access is one of the biggest challenges in treating childhood malnutrition. If therapeutic foods can be produced from high-quality ingredients that are already grown locally, we may be able to reduce dependence on costly imports and make treatment available to many more children. The nutritional quality has to remain the priority, but affordability and local production are essential if we want effective solutions to reach the populations that need them most," said Efrat Monsonego-Ornan, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and leader of the study published in Current Developments in Nutrition.