Development and testing of locally-produced ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods (RUTFs and RUSFs) in Cambodia: Lessons learned

Bindi Borg; Seema Mihrshahi; Arnaud Laillou; Sanne Sigh; Daream Sok; Remco Peters; Chhoun Chamnan; Jacques Berger; Sophonneary Prak; Nanna Roos; Mark Griffin; Frank T Wieringa

doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2

Development and testing of locally-produced ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods (RUTFs and RUSFs) in Cambodia: Lessons learned

Bindi Borg^*, Seema Mihrshahi, Arnaud Laillou, Sanne Sigh, Daream Sok, Remco Peters, Chhoun Chamnan, Jacques Berger, Sophonneary Prak, Nanna Roos, Mark Griffin, Frank T Wieringa

^*Corresponding author for this work

Lifecourse Nutrition & Health

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Abstract

Background: Rates of childhood undernutrition are persistently high in Cambodia. Existing ready-to-use supplementary and therapeutic foods (RUSFs and RUTFs) have had limited acceptance and effectiveness. Therefore, our project developed and trialled a locally-produced, multiple micronutrient fortified lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) with therapeutic and supplementary versions. This ready-to-use food (RUF) is innovative in that, unlike many RUFs, it contains fish instead of milk. Development began in 2013 and the RUF was finalised in 2015. From 2015 until the present, both the RUTF and the RUSF versions were trialled for acceptability and effectiveness.

Methods: This paper draws on project implementation records and semi-structured interviews to describe the partnership between the Cambodian Ministries of Health and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, UNICEF, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), universities, and Vissot factory. It discusses the project implementation and lessons learned from the development and trialling process, and insights into positioning nutrition on the health agenda in low and middle-income countries.

Results: The lessons learned relate to the importance of project planning, management, and documentation in order to seize opportunities in the research, policy, advocacy, and programming environment while ensuring adequate day-to-day project administration and resourcing.

Conclusions: We conclude that projects such as ours, that collaborate to develop and test novel, locally-produced RUTFs and RUSFs, offer an exciting opportunity to respond to both local programmatic and broader research needs.

Original language	English
Article number	1200
Journal	B M C Public Health
Volume	19
Number of pages	9
ISSN	1471-2458
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2
Publication status	Published - 30 Aug 2019

Keywords

Faculty of Science
Ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF)
Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF)
Lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS)
Locally-produced
Childhood malnutrition
Process
Lessons learned

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2Licence: CC BY

Borg et al_B M C Public Health_2019_Vol 19_e1200_(Letter)Final published version, 962 KBLicence: CC BY

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Borg, B., Mihrshahi, S., Laillou, A., Sigh, S., Sok, D., Peters, R., Chamnan, C., Berger, J., Prak, S., Roos, N., Griffin, M., & Wieringa, F. T. (2019). Development and testing of locally-produced ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods (RUTFs and RUSFs) in Cambodia: Lessons learned. B M C Public Health, 19, Article 1200. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2

@article{48c33721505c48fe888ae5adb8b8a0fa,

title = "Development and testing of locally-produced ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods (RUTFs and RUSFs) in Cambodia: Lessons learned",

abstract = "Background: Rates of childhood undernutrition are persistently high in Cambodia. Existing ready-to-use supplementary and therapeutic foods (RUSFs and RUTFs) have had limited acceptance and effectiveness. Therefore, our project developed and trialled a locally-produced, multiple micronutrient fortified lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) with therapeutic and supplementary versions. This ready-to-use food (RUF) is innovative in that, unlike many RUFs, it contains fish instead of milk. Development began in 2013 and the RUF was finalised in 2015. From 2015 until the present, both the RUTF and the RUSF versions were trialled for acceptability and effectiveness.Methods: This paper draws on project implementation records and semi-structured interviews to describe the partnership between the Cambodian Ministries of Health and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, UNICEF, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), universities, and Vissot factory. It discusses the project implementation and lessons learned from the development and trialling process, and insights into positioning nutrition on the health agenda in low and middle-income countries.Results: The lessons learned relate to the importance of project planning, management, and documentation in order to seize opportunities in the research, policy, advocacy, and programming environment while ensuring adequate day-to-day project administration and resourcing.Conclusions: We conclude that projects such as ours, that collaborate to develop and test novel, locally-produced RUTFs and RUSFs, offer an exciting opportunity to respond to both local programmatic and broader research needs.",

keywords = "Faculty of Science, Ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF), Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), Lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS), Locally-produced, Childhood malnutrition, Process, Lessons learned",

author = "Bindi Borg and Seema Mihrshahi and Arnaud Laillou and Sanne Sigh and Daream Sok and Remco Peters and Chhoun Chamnan and Jacques Berger and Sophonneary Prak and Nanna Roos and Mark Griffin and Wieringa, {Frank T}",

note = "CURIS 2019 NEXS 273",

year = "2019",

month = aug,

day = "30",

doi = "10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2",

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journal = "B M C Public Health",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Development and testing of locally-produced ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods (RUTFs and RUSFs) in Cambodia

T2 - Lessons learned

AU - Borg, Bindi

AU - Mihrshahi, Seema

AU - Laillou, Arnaud

AU - Sigh, Sanne

AU - Sok, Daream

AU - Peters, Remco

AU - Chamnan, Chhoun

AU - Berger, Jacques

AU - Prak, Sophonneary

AU - Roos, Nanna

AU - Griffin, Mark

AU - Wieringa, Frank T

N1 - CURIS 2019 NEXS 273

PY - 2019/8/30

Y1 - 2019/8/30

N2 - Background: Rates of childhood undernutrition are persistently high in Cambodia. Existing ready-to-use supplementary and therapeutic foods (RUSFs and RUTFs) have had limited acceptance and effectiveness. Therefore, our project developed and trialled a locally-produced, multiple micronutrient fortified lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) with therapeutic and supplementary versions. This ready-to-use food (RUF) is innovative in that, unlike many RUFs, it contains fish instead of milk. Development began in 2013 and the RUF was finalised in 2015. From 2015 until the present, both the RUTF and the RUSF versions were trialled for acceptability and effectiveness.Methods: This paper draws on project implementation records and semi-structured interviews to describe the partnership between the Cambodian Ministries of Health and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, UNICEF, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), universities, and Vissot factory. It discusses the project implementation and lessons learned from the development and trialling process, and insights into positioning nutrition on the health agenda in low and middle-income countries.Results: The lessons learned relate to the importance of project planning, management, and documentation in order to seize opportunities in the research, policy, advocacy, and programming environment while ensuring adequate day-to-day project administration and resourcing.Conclusions: We conclude that projects such as ours, that collaborate to develop and test novel, locally-produced RUTFs and RUSFs, offer an exciting opportunity to respond to both local programmatic and broader research needs.

AB - Background: Rates of childhood undernutrition are persistently high in Cambodia. Existing ready-to-use supplementary and therapeutic foods (RUSFs and RUTFs) have had limited acceptance and effectiveness. Therefore, our project developed and trialled a locally-produced, multiple micronutrient fortified lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS) with therapeutic and supplementary versions. This ready-to-use food (RUF) is innovative in that, unlike many RUFs, it contains fish instead of milk. Development began in 2013 and the RUF was finalised in 2015. From 2015 until the present, both the RUTF and the RUSF versions were trialled for acceptability and effectiveness.Methods: This paper draws on project implementation records and semi-structured interviews to describe the partnership between the Cambodian Ministries of Health and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, UNICEF, the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), universities, and Vissot factory. It discusses the project implementation and lessons learned from the development and trialling process, and insights into positioning nutrition on the health agenda in low and middle-income countries.Results: The lessons learned relate to the importance of project planning, management, and documentation in order to seize opportunities in the research, policy, advocacy, and programming environment while ensuring adequate day-to-day project administration and resourcing.Conclusions: We conclude that projects such as ours, that collaborate to develop and test novel, locally-produced RUTFs and RUSFs, offer an exciting opportunity to respond to both local programmatic and broader research needs.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF)

KW - Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF)

KW - Lipid-based nutrient supplement (LNS)

KW - Locally-produced

KW - Childhood malnutrition

KW - Process

KW - Lessons learned

U2 - 10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2

DO - 10.1186/s12889-019-7445-2

M3 - Letter

C2 - 31470824

SN - 1471-2458

VL - 19

JO - B M C Public Health

JF - B M C Public Health

M1 - 1200

ER -

Development and testing of locally-produced ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods (RUTFs and RUSFs) in Cambodia: Lessons learned

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Cite this