Wednesday, October 13, 1999
P&G unveils nutrition drink
Aims product at malnourished kids around the world
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Imagine a drink that kids enjoy and that's good for their bodies, then imagine that this drink could be sold for less than soda pop to people living in the poorest, most malnourished parts of the world.
That's what Procter & Gamble hopes to achieve with NutriDelight, an orange-flavored powdered drink unveiled Tuesday at the company's annual meeting.
NutriDelight is fortified with vitamin A, iron and iodine. In poor countries, shortages of these three substances cause millions of cases of mental retardation, blindness, anemia, stunted growth and other health problems.
While NutriDelight may be good news for the Third World, some nutrition experts cautioned American parents that the new drink will not make their kids taller, stronger or smarter.
P&G has begun selling packets of powdered NutriDelight in stores throughout the Philippines and plans to gradually expand to other nations. If the product can be marketed at a low price to large segments of the world population, some nu trition experts say P&G's product could make a real difference in the global battle against malnutrition.
“In America, there is a wide range of fortified food products: milk, margarine, iodized salt, fortified breakfast cereals. But in developing countries, hardly any food products are fortified,” said Werner Schultink, senior micronutrient adviser to UNI CEF. “Overall, development of fortified food products in developing nations is something we would like to see.”
In fact, UNICEF worked with Procter & Gamble to develop NutriDelight. The agency sponsored a 1996 study of 700 schoolchildren in Tanzania that reported early, positive results from serving the P&G product.
Among children aged 6 to 12, the study reported that children who drank a serving per day for six months grew an average of 3.2 centimeters compared with 2.6 centimeters in a control group that did not get the fortified drink.
Children who drank NutriDelight also gained 1.8 kilograms compared with 1.2 kilograms for those who didn't. Mental functioning was not measured.
It remains to be seen whether such results will be duplicated in the Philippines, where the distribution will be less scientifically controlled.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 16.5 million children worldwide suffer brain damage and mental retardation caused by lack of iodine; 2.7 million children under age 5 suffer blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency.
Many millions more suffer less extreme problems such as anemia, stunted growth and trouble fighting off infections due to poor nutrition.
Dr. Schultink said the P&G product fits in with efforts by UNICEF and many other health organizations to push fortified foods, such as iron-enriched wheat for noodles in Indonesia and vitamin A in sugar in Latin America.
In many of these countries, soft drinks with no nutritional value are routinely purchased by poor people. If NutriDelight proves to be popular and inexpensive, it could prove to be a more healthful alternative, Dr. Schultink said.
Some nutrition experts, however, groaned at the marketing hype that accompanied P&G's product announcement.
During Tuesday's annual meeting, P&G chairman, president and chief executive Durk Jager said NutriDelight has the potential to improve the future of a whole generation of children.
“Just imagine,” Mr. Jager said. “Strong as Jesse Ventura, tall as Michael Jordan, smart as Bill Gates. That's the drink mothers and kids will go for.”
There is nothing in NutriDelight that can turn normal children into super-children, said Dr. Chessa Lutter, a childhood nutrition expert with the WHO.
“I'm concerned that middle-class and upper-middle-class people will think, "It's fortified, so it must be good,'” Dr. Lutter said. “Getting more micronutrients in your diet is only useful if your diet is deficient. It will not make any difference for children who are not malnourished.”
P&G spokesman Donald Tassone said Mr. Jager's Ventura-Jordan-Gates statement was “hyperbole.” He also said that the company plans to market NutriDelight primarily in less-developed countries. It has no immediate plans to sell the product in America.
“Clearly, the target in the Philippines and beyond is children in need,” Mr. Tassone said.
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