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Indiamix Development of low cost fortified blended food Executive Summary The World Food Programme (WFP), keeping with its consistent efforts to alleviate hunger and malnutrition, sets itself the aim of providing a nutritious product that is affordable for governments across the world to feed children and mothers at nutritionally critical times in their lives. WFP has been actively involved in India since the early 1970s. It works in close collaboration with state governments, to provide a nutritious food supplement to the malnourished sections of the Indian people. A blend of pre-cooked maize and soya fortified with micronutrients called CSB (corn-soya blend), is a product of high nutritive value, used successfully throughout the world.
The distribution of Indiamix was begun in Rajasthan in 1995. It has since been extended to other WFP-assisted Indian states like Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. Rajasthan is also the first state to have produced its own local variation of Indiamix. The state government has taken the initiative, in the recent past, to manufacture a local blend Rajasthanmix.
The Indiamix Project Fight Against Micronutrient Malnutrition The Indiamix project is an embodiment of WFP’s fight against micronutrient malnutrition through provision of fortified foods to the most vulnerable sections of the population. The goal of the project is to:
Poverty constraints people’s access to wholesome food that would provide them the necessary calories, proteins, and vitamins. Providing these nutrients in the form of supplementary food is a temporary measure but an important one.
The importance of eliminating widespread micronutrient malnutrition has been well recognised but the norms for the same have not been specified for the supplementary nutrition component under the ICDS programme. The micronutritional needs of the vulnerable groups thus remain unfulfilled. WFP is therefore continuing to focus on the micronutrient malnutrition through ICDS, by defining norms for micronutrients in supplementary food and incorporating the same in the policy document on ICDS. WFP initiated action on this front in 1994, by developing Indiamix, taking into consideration the nutritional needs of the vulnerable groups as also the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of producing a nutritious supplementary food locally. Indiamix is a blended food that is composed of wheat (75 per cent), full-fat soya (25 per cent) and is suitably fortified with the required micronutrients. The composition of ingredients can be modified according to the locally available foodstuffs and their acceptability. The composition could also be 40% wheat, 40% maize and 20% full-fat soya. This nutritious, fortified, precooked supplementary food is now being distributed through the existing ICDS network in India. Indiamix is thus, a precooked, nutritious commodity, appropriate for both on-the-spot feeding and take-home rations. During the Rajasthan drought, double ration of Indiamix was distributed by WFP to the children, saving them from starvation and malnutrition. Indiamix: A Suitable Food in Time of Disaster In normal or critical settings, WFP seeks to deliver its mandated commitment to end hunger. In times of acute food shortages and other emergency situations, fortified blended food like Indiamix is proving to be a lifesaver. Fortified with micronutrients, this blended food is a suitable product to respond to any emergency situation, ensuring the prevention of malnutrition. This successful and innovative product of WFP has also proved to be very useful in extending relief to the drought- stricken state of Rajasthan and to the victims of the cyclone disaster in the state of Orissa. Beyond the Indian borders, Indiamix was also provided, under the WFP/UNHCR Bhutanese refugees Operation in Nepal, to specifically address the problem of micronutrient deficiencies that had occurred in the camps. It covered seven camps in Jhapa and Morang districts of Eastern Nepal, extending nutritional support to 96,500 registered refugees. Indiamix: A Nutritious Food at Low Cost The most important advantage of using Indiamix is its lower cost per beneficiary for the same nutritional benefit as imported foods. Indiamix provides better levels of nutrition than any other product of the same cost.
Indiamix: A Sustainable Initiative Indiamix emphasises sustainability. Production of Indiamix is organised either through the financially self-supporting enterprises that are already producing food commercially for local and industrial markets, or through village processing units with management support from the social sector. Community-level production of Indiamix is a source of income generation and employment, particularly for women. It also serves to encourage local agricultural production.
Over the years, the favourable fallout of producing Indiamix locally has been felt on numerous fronts. These include employment creation as well as an increased demand for:
Indiamix: A Replicable
Initiative Impressed with the huge success of Indiamix, many state governments have shown an active interest in replicating this experience. WFP is providing all possible support to the state governments to ensure its success and sustainability. The Government of Rajasthan was the first to initiate the process of evolving a local variation of Indiamix called "Rajasthanmix". The composition of "Rajasthanmix", now used in Rajasthan, is the same as that of Indiamix, i.e., wheat (75 per cent) and full-fat soyabean (25 per cent). Wheat and soyabean are produced in Rajasthan and are regularly consumed by the local population. Thus, the composition of Rajasthanmix is just as appealing to local taste as Indiamix has been. Jhabua, in Madhya Pradesh, is another success story where blended and fortified food similar to the Rajasthanmix is being locally manufactured. Women in this area have formed a cooperative society-Amrut Mahila Audhyogic Cooperative Society Limited. Sowing the seeds of community initiatives, WFP and JVS Food Pvt. Ltd., have coordinated to organise continuous training, and exposure visits of the core group members to producing units. The result is a production plant of limited capacity entirely managed by the Women’s Group and supplying supplementary nutrition to ICDS centres in 3 blocks of the district: Kajali, Dungri and Meghnagar. This however, would not have been possible without the district’s commitment and dedication to this initiative.
Cooking with Indiamix: Feasibility and Acceptability Indiamix was developed keeping in mind the local taste, and its acceptance was facilitated by the development of "easy-to-cook" recipes, ensuring its success. Twenty-one recipes were developed without using additional oil or fat and without altering the basic composition of Indiamix. "This training programme on preparing different recipes from Indiamix has helped me a great deal in overcoming the monotony of preparing and serving the same supplementary food", says a local anganwadi worker. All the demonstrated recipes were considered feasible and easy to prepare at the centres. The fuel, utensils, salt and jaggery, are provided by the state governments under their ICDS budgets or by the community. Indiamix recipes have a wide range-savory or sweet custards (rab, gurrab), flat bread (roti), steamed or boiled dumpling (baati, gatte, dhokla and khaman dhokla), doughnut-like sweets (laddu), crunchy treats (burfi and sweet baati), crunchy sweet granules (panjiri), and savory or sweet pudding (upma, halwa). Most of the recipes are prepared using only water and Indiamix, with the addition of jaggery (boiled sugar cane juice) or sugar or salt. However, some recipes do require buttermilk, curd (yogurt), vegetables and/or spices.
High Technology at Low Cost - Manufacturing Indiamix through Extrusion There are two effective manufacturing processes for blended food: roasting, and extrusion. WFP contracted local manufacturers for producing Indiamix using the roasting process, as the Indian manufacturers were already producing roasted foods and thus had the necessary equipment and expertise. While this was a huge success, it enabled WFP to go a step further and introduce the process of low-cost extrusion for the manufacture of Indiamix. Extrusion is a technology in which, a product of a doughy texture is forced through a die to give it a given form. Many precooked and preformed food products manufactured today are processed in food extruders. Ready-to-eat cereals, expanded snacks, bread substitutes, soup and gravy bases, textured vegetable protein made from full-fat soy flour, are all examples of extrusion processed food. There are many advantages of manufacturing Indiamix through the extrusion process as opposed to the roasting method used earlier. Manufacturing of Indiamix through extrusion process not only maintains, but also enhances the bioavailability of nutrients by converting the nutrients into a more easily digestible form. Effects of the cooking action of the extrude1 on various nutrients present in Indiamix:
The introduction of the extrusion process has led to a substantial improvement in the quality and digestibility of the product. The manufacturing of Indiamix through extrusion process not only maintains, but also enhances its high nutritive value as it converts the nutrients into a more easily digestible form. Ensuring Quality Indiamix has a long shelf life (minimum one year), even under conditions similar to those in villages. Strict quality control measures are adopted to ensure that the high quality standards set by WFP are achieved. Recognized agencies like Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) and Food Research and Analysis Centre (FRAC) are involved in the process of quality control. The end-product of each batch is analyzed by these expert agencies in specialised food laboratories before it is sent to various states. Even where Indiamix is locally produced, quality control is ensured by the respective states.
The Success of Indiamix Indiamix being an indigenous food, has proved to be effective in increasing the community’s sense of ownership of the programme and in enhancing programme impact. Consequent upon the resounding success of Indiamix over the years, experts working on the project have been invited to various countries like Ethiopia, Senegal. Malawi and Kenya, to share their experience and expertise.
WFP’s Annual Provision of Fortified Food through ICDS
Rich Returns on Low Investment Indiamix is enriching the quality of life of millions of children by giving them a healthy start to life which they rightly deserve. Indiamix Recipes
Locally
available green leafy and other vegetables can be used instead of those
suggested in the above recipes. WFP’s locally produced micronutrient-fortified food,
‘Indiamix’, provides an ideal complementary food for infants, and adequate
nutritional supplementation for pregnant women and nursing mothers.
Production and Distribution of Indiamix in India
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