Markets for Nutrition: What Role for Business?

Abstract

Policymakers are increasingly seeking to use food systems to help reduce rates of chronic undernutrition and to use markets to deliver nutrient-rich foods to vulnerable populations. This article examines how this might be achieved, drawing lessons from three intervention types: ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), mandatory fortification and voluntarily fortified products. We find that a common set of constraints tends to inhibit markets from delivering nutrition and makes it difficult to reach populations at the 'bottom of the pyramid'. Overcoming these constraints requires a shift from working at the level of individual businesses to that of market and food systems. It also suggests a need for renewed focus on the effectiveness of products in reaching key groups, on the informal markets that serve the poor and on the inherent complexity of market systems. These findings suggest that food and nutrition policies and partnerships should be based on principles of experimentation and adaptive learning.

Business-Based Strategies for Improved Nutrition: The Case of Grameen Danone Foods

“…In turn, this requires that consumers recognise the nutritional value of the food in question and weigh this appropriately against other characteristics of the food including taste, quality, brand name, convenience, etc. (Humphrey and Robinson 2015;Koh, Hegde and Karamchandani 2014). On the supply side, the food needs to be produced, processed, and distributed in such a way that it is nutrientdense and safe at the point of consumption, and also easily available to poor consumers.…”

“…Thus, food-based strategies, including the fortification of widely consumed processed foods and the enhancement of the micronutrient content of commonly consumed staples through biofortification, have been promoted as a viable approach to enhancing the micronutrient status of populations (Gibson 2011). However, whilst a number of nutritionally enhanced foods have been found to be efficacious in reducing micronutrient deficiencies, there are considerable challenges in achieving sustained consumption of these foods by poor communities (Henson and Humphrey 2015;Humphrey and Robinson 2015).…”

“…Recognising that the majority of poor communities procure some or all of their food through markets, there is increasing attention to the role of businesses in bringing about the increased consumption of nutrient-dense foods by deficient populations (Humphrey and Robinson 2015).…”

“…There are increasing examples of efforts by businesses to market nutrient-dense foods to poor populations, from multinational corporations (MNCs) to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) operating across the formal and informal sectors of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Humphrey and Robinson 2015). Various types of businesses are selling complementary foods for infants, ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), fortified processed foods, and biofortified staples.…”

Nutritionalizing Food: A Framework for Capital Accumulation

“…Delinking the obesity epidemic from the food industry in the minds of the public, and linking it with individual behaviour, reflects a successful deployment of the technologies of self in creating subjectivities that accept victim blaming as the cause and self‐care as the solution; industry then gains doubly by associating good nutrition with the functional food that it sells. Humphrey and Robinson (: 62), citing global consulting firm Hystra, remark that the success of marketing strategies can be discerned from the fact that ‘even very poor consumers are willing to buy more expensive products if they are convinced that these products have value’. The question is, how are the health claims of the functional food industry turned into truth claims?…”