Ready to Use Therapeutic Food is a peanut butter type mixture made with locally available ingredients to the extent possible and supplemented with vitamins and minerals. After extensive research in the developing world, it was endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2007. It is now the established treatment to combat severe malnutrition worldwide.
Under medical supervision, the parent(s) of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) are given a supply of RUTF to take home. The parent simply feeds it to their child three times a day for two weeks then returns for another medical check and another supply of RUTF. A typical course of treatment lasts 4 to 8 weeks.
Toddler Food Partners helps obtain the equipment necessary to manufacture RUTF at a local level in developing countries.
See: http://www.projectpeanutbutter.org for more details about RUTF
RUTF is the generic reference to the therapeutic food. It is marketed internationally under various names such as “Plumpy’Nut”, “medika mamba”, and “eeZeePaste”. In India, it is referred to as Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT).
The Preparation of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)
RUTF is a mixture of locally obtainable products: peanuts, powdered milk, sugar, and vegetable oil and a medically researched premix of vitamins and minerals. Typically, the peanuts are roasted then ground to a peanut paste (e.g., peanut butter). The peanut paste is thoroughly mixed with the other nutritious ingredients and a vitamin premix. This mixture is passed through a final grinding process before packaging.
Production can be done by those in the local community. The process and training are relatively simple.