The Little Kitchen That Whispers and Roars ...

What's with the bunny suits?  

All in the service of ensuring clean, high quality food production, Malawi style!

Many of you ask : 

Where does the nutritional paste, Malawi's magic "Chiponde," a rich mixture of roasted peanuts, milk powder, vegetable oil, sugar, vitamins, and minerals, come from?

About five years ago, after experimenting with the European production of "Chiponde" (also known as "Plumpy Nut"), Project Peanut Butter's team created a small, local plant within Blantyre, Malawi.

USAID donated a major portion of the equipment.  

A portion of an old shoe factory was leased and converted to serve as a new manufacturing plant.

A talented plant manager from Malawi was recruited.

About eighteen staff were hired.

A new stage of Project Peanut Butter began.

Today, most raw materials for "Chiponde" are sourced right in Malawi.  

High quality milk powder, vitamins, and minerals are the only components of "Chiponde" sourced from Europe.

In all fourteen clinics where Project Peanut Butter's nurses, doctors, and other staff work, "Chiponde" is provided free to all qualified clients.  Qualification is based on international standards for Severe and Moderate Malnutrition.  

For outside corporate customers, such as Doctors Without Borders, The Clinton Foundation, UNESCO, and other charities and government organizations, the entire plant runs on a "cost recovery" basis.  The only charge for "Chiponde" is the actual cost of manufacture.

To keep costs very low, Project Peanut Butter's team strives to achieve donations of quality ingredients from international partners.  Many organizations provide support.  For example, WFP (The World Food Program) provides milk powder from Europe.   

As a result of the plant's efficiency, local labor, and donated ingredients, a full four to eight week treatment for malnourished child costs between $20 and $25 for "Chiponde."

Right now, the plant produces about two tons of "Chiponde" a day.  This translates into about 500 tons of product a year.  Yes, that's a lot of peanuts!

As a result of food shortages across the world and the increasing success and broad use of this therapeutic approach, demand for "Chiponde" (and "Plumpy Nut") is growing rapidly.  

Over the next six months, Project Peanut Butter will expand the Malawi plant to provide roughly three times the current capacity - up to six tons a day.

During the hunger season, which runs from about December through early April, the plant often operates at "full throttle."  Night shifts are common.  

The biggest manufacturing challenges come from the realities of Africa.

Sometimes, there is no electricity for days at a time.  Sometimes, suppliers run out of critical raw ingredients.  Bottling materials may be scarce.  Inventory management requires much forward planning.  

Each bottle of "Chiponde" is made with a commitment to eliminate water from the final mixture.  This ensures there is no capacity, no fluid support for bacteria.  Thus, "Chiponde" maintains a shelf life of roughly nine to fourteen months.  

A new packing machine with high-tech foil containers will be installed in the next year to push this shelf life to nearly eighteen months.   

You may have noted the different colored caps on the bottles in the second image above.  

For Project Peanut Butter's own clinical sites, bottles are sanitized and reused over and over again.  Thus, the rainbow of tops and scuffed labels on the bottles in this particular manufacturing "run."  All part of an environment friendly path!

For major customers, such as Doctors Without Borders, the plant uses shiny new bottles with crisp red lettering.

Each finished bottle of "Chiponde" contains about 1,200 calories of food and a broad spectrum of vitamins and minerals.  

Dr. Manary, the founder of Project Peanut Butter, refers to this product as an "atomic" food, designed to replenish a long-term deficit in a child's nutritional history.  

A young child with severe acute malnutrition will use roughly a bottle a day as therapy to heal from edema or "wasting."

As mentioned in earlier "posts," this approach allows a mother to avoid a hospital stay and return home where she can care for her other children and maintain her regular daily routine.  

Fortunately, this therapy is generating successful outcomes 90% to 95% of the time.