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For millions of children suffering from severe malnutrition, an effective treatment already exists. The problem is that many of them never receive it.

A new study led by Dr. Aurélie Bechoff, a visiting researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Hebrew University professors Efrat Monsonego-Ornan and Ram Reifen, together with an international research team, suggests that part of the solution may lie in producing therapeutic food closer to where it is needed, using crops that are already grown locally. The study, published in Current Developments in Nutrition, examined a high-protein therapeutic food made from chickpeas, sorghum, corn and soybeans, ingredients widely available in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ready-to-use therapeutic foods, known as RUTFs, are a standard treatment for children with severe acute malnutrition. Yet according to the study, current treatment reaches only around 30% of children who need it. One of the major challenges is that conventional formulations often depend on ingredients produced in wealthier countries, including relatively expensive powdered milk, creating both cost and supply barriers in lower-income countries.

Those barriers are becoming increasingly urgent as conflict, climate change and cuts to global humanitarian funding place additional pressure on food and nutrition programs. The researchers argue that developing effective therapeutic foods from locally available ingredients could help make treatment less dependent on international supply chains and more affordable to produce in the regions where it is most needed.

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