High quality fortified premixed cereals can help caregivers meet infants’ nutrient needs after 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. Such cereals are widely used in nutrition assistance programs, but brands available in stores tend to be poorly regulated in terms of nutrient composition and labeling. There is also considerable concern about mycotoxin contamination in these products; for example, aflatoxins are toxic compounds commonly found in foods in Malawi which are known to cause cancer. Research is ongoing to understand the complex relationship between aflatoxin exposure and child stunting.
Additionally, local commercial premixed cereal (CPC) producers sell less expensive products than established multinational brands, but demand for local products remains low. This is due in part to lack of trust in unobservable characteristics like nutrient content and food safety. Previous research has shown variation in quality of infant cereals, and potentially high willingness to pay for certification services.
A study conducted between June and August 2018 explored market demand for commercially-available cereals in Malawi, as well as their nutrient and mycotoxin levels. A sample of 94 cereals purchased in the Central and Southern regions were sent to the US for analysis by a commercial food testing laboratory to measure total moisture, calories, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrate, iron, and zinc content, and also total aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination. We compared test results to available and proposed national and international standards. Tested nutrient composition was also compared to products’ nutritional label values.
Key findings from testing of infant cereals
- Both imported and locally-produced cereals had trouble meeting various macro- and micro-nutrient standards, with particular difficulty meeting protein, fat, and zinc requirements.
- Labels regularly misrepresented actual product contents, although labeled values for all nutrients but iron represented only small fractions of intake requirements for infants, suggesting limited significance for overall diet quality. Iron labels were particularly inaccurate relative to infants’ needs.
- While imported products tended to have undetectable levels of aflatoxin and fumonisin, the majority of locally-produced cereals had levels of these mycotoxins which are considered unsafe for infants. Malawian cereals had an average of 14.3 ± 16.6 parts per billion (ppb) of total aflatoxin, compared to 0.08 ± 0.47 ppb for imported cereals. The maximum level observed was 89.2 ppb. The proposed regulatory limit for infant foods is 0.1 ppb.
Demand for commercially-available infant cereals
- Caregivers of infants overwhelmingly rely on traditional, made-at-home porridges made of maize and groundnuts or soy, and consider these part of an ideal diet for their child.
- However, over half of all respondents stated an interest in fortified, premixed cereals like likuni phala, and in hypothetical experiments most frequently chose likuni phala over both plain maize porridge and family foods like ndiwo. Fortified cereals are ideally meant to replace nutrient-poor products, rather than nutrient-rich family foods like beans and vegetables which improve dietary diversity and quality.
- Average willingness to pay for locally-produced brands was lower than for the imported brand of cereal used in the study, but respondents were only willing to pay more than the minimum observed cost for local cereals, suggesting unmet demand for local products.
- Consumers were willing to pay less for a cereal marketed to the whole family sold in a larger pack sizes than for an identically-formulated package of likuni phala, marketed as an infant cereal.
Overall, we find variability in the quality of commercial premixed cereals available in Malawi, which suggests the need for improved quality assurance mechanisms to achieve consistent and high quality. Simultaneously, it appears that there is unmet demand for locally-produced infant cereals and in some cases willingness to pay above supply cost, suggesting that producers have the ability to invest in important quality improvements. However, considerable barriers to quality improvements exist, particularly for smaller producers. For example, it is currently difficult for producers to identify and purchase aflatoxin-free raw materials. Given that these raw materials, namely maize and soy, are also used in traditional at-home porridges, a top priority should be promoting mycotoxin reduction, both at the household-level and as these materials are aggregated and stored. Aflatoxin control should further be understood as both a trade and a public health issue, and issues of food quality and safety must be increasingly incorporated into national discussions about health and nutrition. While there are still considerable barriers to meeting quality standards for infants in Malawi, the proposed Malawi standard for high-protein cereal-based foods for infants and young children awaits gazetting and can serve as an impetus for improvements. Better enforcement, support, and incentive structures are necessary to ensure adherence to high quality standards.
