This ten-month-old child weighed only 7.3 pounds when he was brought to a clinic run by Meds and Foods for Kids (MFK) near Cap Haitein, Haiti. He had visible signs of severe malnutrition: sunken abdomen, ribs visible through the skin, reddish-colored hair. His mother had died when he was five months old. He was being cared for by a 30 year old cousin and, occasionally, a grandmother. His cousin was given a supply of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) to feed him at home for the next week.

Toddler Food Partners has teamed up with a partner organization, Compatible Technologies International (CTI), to help develop a village scale manufacturing facility. The pilot project is targeted for installation in India. The facility will be able to manufacture moderate quantities of RUTF suitable for treating malnourished children at the village level. Production is expected to be approximately 500 Kg/week.

CTI personnel bring food engineering experience and TFP is focusing on the manufacturing process and equipment. TFP has been looking for cost effective off-the-shelf equipment that can be used to make RUTF.

Standard RUTF is made from peanuts, milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar and a vitamin/mineral suppliment. The manufacturing process is as follows:

• Roast the peanuts
• Grind the roasted peanuts
• Weigh each ingredient
• Combine the ingredients in a mixer
• Pass the mixture once more through a grinder
• Package the final product

Peanuts will be roasted in large woks over propane burners. The roasted peanuts will be ground in motorized CTI Omega grinders. Off the shelf food scales will be used to weigh the ingredients. The ingredients will be mixed in a hand turned stainless steel mixer. A hand cranked filler will be used to dispense the product into containers for distribution.

A second version of RUTF is being evaluated. In this version, the milk powder will be replaced with chick pea flour which is more readily available in the target area. It is expected to be nutritionally similar to standard RUTF.