As starvation bites and famine takes hold, MSF nutrition clinics in Gaza are fast running out of RUTF stock, claims Berbain. But there are broader supply chain concerns. The shuttering of USAID has led to hundreds of thousands of boxes of Plumpy’Nut sachets collecting dust in warehouses around the world.
With global aid distribution networks throttled, one stockpile includes 5,000 tons of Plumpy’Nut, worth $13 million, that could feed more than 484,000 children, according to US manufacturer Edesia. Part of Nutriset’s PlumpyField global network, the Rhode Island site has operational capacity for 1.5 million Plumpy’Nut sachets a day—a sizable chunk of the 134,198 total tons of all Nutriset products processed by producers in 2023. However, due to funding cuts, just 72,000 tons of Nutriset RUTF and supplements were produced worldwide in 2024, half of which was Plumpy’Nut—approximately 1 million sachets a day.
US foreign aid cuts are also depleting UNICEF’s RUTF stocks. It warned in March that supply was running short in 17 countries, affecting 2.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Widespread famine is also occurring in Sudan. “The pipeline is drying up,” says Kirk Prichard, vice president of programs for humanitarian charity Concern US. “Cameroon is expected to run out of RUTF this month, with Nigeria and Somalia soon to follow.”
The US Department of State, which now administers foreign assistance programs following the official closure of USAID on July 1, didn’t respond to a WIRED request for comment.
Collins has now developed a plant-based emergency food with similar efficacy to Plumpy’Nut but made with soy, maize, and sorghum. It could be the future of RUTF, provided to children with hidden lactose intolerance or peanut allergies. But funding for the project dried up in 2021, meaning Valid Nutrition’s factory in Malawi had to be closed. The group is now exploring third-party processors to manufacture the product.
Collins believes it’s symptomatic of a broader problem that’s completely man-made: Politics often comes before the lives of innocent, starving people. “With humanitarian access and space to operate, you could treat all cases in Gaza within a week with RUTF,” he says. “Without it, recovery rates will be low and slow. They’ll be more vulnerable to death.”
Source: Wired.
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