Enhancing the nutritional quality of relief diets: workshop proceedings

This paper reports on a workshop addressing the issue of nutritional quality of relief foods. The workshop was designed to address the growing realisation that more can be done to address inadequate provision of nutrients and micronutrients in relief programmes.

Workshop findings:

• in many situations, the inadequate nutritional quality of available relief foods may contribute to excess morbidity and food insecurity. The nutrient quality of relief foods can be improved by using available technologies and applying them more extensively in relief situation
• more effective planning can result from considering past and present nutritional needs of refugees, and adapting a basic framework for responding more quickly to emergencies
• because refugee diets are typically inadequate to meet nutritional needs, donors and field implementers have compelling ethical reasons to act. In actively addressing micronutrient deficiencies, these partners must take steps to safeguard human dignity and preserve lives in relief situations. Many cost-effective, useful and sustainable practices exist and should be standardised, applied or researched

Issues needing further exploration before consensus can be reached:

• how to initiate and speed up the relief response once nutritional deficiencies are detected?
• how to match the nutritional design of a processed food with it’s intended use
• whether to consider the nutrient quality of relief foods from the standpoint of their benefit primarily to women and children or to the entire family, and whether planners should consider only the requirements of people with the highest nutrient need?
• what staple foods and other commodities should be fortified, with how much of which nutrients, and where?
• how to give greater attention to quality control, too often a weak or nonexistent component of food fortification programmes?
• who will pick up the initial costs for fortified foods (donor or industry)?
• how to prevent the incidence of vitamin C and niacin deficiencies?