Peanut-Based Beverages a Promising Solution for Undernutrition

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malnutrition, mainly undernutrition, because of malnutrition remains a serious challenge mostly in countries like Malawi in Africa. To address this challenge, WHO is promoting universal access to effective nutrition interventions and healthy diets from sustainable and resilient food systems. Among the sustainable, resilient, and nutritious food sources are legumes like peanuts. Unfortunately, in countries like Malawi, despite the adequate supply, peanut consumption is low. As a way of increasing peanut consumption, UGA food scientists developed prototypes of peanut-based beverages with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). A beverage was chosen because compared to solid or semi-solid foods, beverages are convenient, easy to digest, appeal to all age groups, and can be delivered in multiple flavors. Malawi consumers liked two of the UGA-developed beverages. In the long term, one of the beverages may help in the management of undernutrition because of its superior nutritional quality. The peanut-based beverage may also be valuable in other countries if it could be equally acceptable.