Therapeutic Food - Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food

Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food

A subset of therapeutic foods, ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), are energy-dense, micronutrient-enriched pastes that have a nutritional profile similar to the traditional F-100 milk based diet used in inpatient therapeutic feeding programs and are often made of peanuts, oil, sugar and milk powder.

RUTFs are a “homogeneous mixture of lipid-rich and water-soluble foods”. The lipids used in formulating RUTFs are in a viscous liquid form. The other ingredients are in small particles and are mixed through the lipid. The other ingredients are protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. The mixture needs to be homogeneous in order for it to be effectively consumed, and to do this, a specific mixing process needs to be implemented. The fat/lipid component of the RUTF is heated and stirred first. The heat should be maintained in order for the lipid to remain in the most optimum form for mixing in the other ingredients. The protein, carbohydrate and vitamins and minerals are in a powdered format and are then slowly and gradually added to the lipid, while the lipid is being vigorously stirred. After all the ingredients are added to the liquid lipid and vigorous stirring is maintained, the mixture is then stirred with more speed and for several minutes. If the powdered ingredients have a particle size that is larger than 200 µm, the mixture would start to separate. So, the particle size of the powdered ingredients need to be maintained at less than 200 µm, for the mixture to not readily separate.

The most common RUTFs are made of four ingredients: sugar, dried skimmed milk, oil and vitamin and mineral supplement (CMV). Other qualities that RUTFs should have include that their texture is soft or crushable and taste is acceptable and suitable for children of young ages. RUTFs should also be ready to eat without the need for them to be cooked. A very important characteristic is that the RUTFs have a long shelf-life and that they are micro-organism contamination resistant, without the need for expensive packaging. Since the ingredients need to be suspended in liquid, the liquid used in producing RUTFs needs to be fat/lipid. 50% of the protein forming RUTFs should come from dairy products. An example of a nutritional composition of a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods is as follows: