FG To Standardise Tom Brown Production To Tackle Malnutrition

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said it will standardise the production of Tom Brown to help tackle Nigeria’s high malnutrition rates and improve child nutrition nationwide.

The Director of the Nutrition Department, Mrs Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi, stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a two-day Stakeholders Meeting to Review the Draft National Guidelines on Tom Brown Production, organised with support from Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Bako-Aiyegbusi said the unified standards is crucial to control the current varied production practices in composition and safety.

“There is a dire need to develop National Guidelines on Tom Brown Production and Implementation to ensure quality, consistency, safety, and scalability nationwide,” Bako-Aiyegbusi said.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) explained that Tom brown is a nutrient-dense powder made from toasted and ground local ingredients like corn, millet, guinea corn, soybeans, groundnuts (peanuts), and sometimes fish powder or spices.

Similarly, Bako-Aiyegbusi explained that Tom Brown is enriched with ingredients such as crayfish and soybeans, centered to improving complementary feeding in low-income households, stressing that nutrients from breast milk alone are insufficient for babies from six months of age.

She further encouraged parents to enrich family foods rather than buying expensive packaged meals.

Speaking further on the standardisation of the product, she noted that the representatives from state Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Education, Water Resources, Women Affairs, and Information are now involved to ensure the guidelines reflect local realities.

She also stated that the discussion is being done in collaboration with the states, adding that communities could produce it on a large scale and generate income. She also stated that Borno and Kano States had already begun exploring large-scale production opportunities, and that by so doing, Tom Brown wouldn’t just be a household item.

Speaking on malnutrition, Bako-Aiyegbusi highlighted Nigeria’s “triple burden,” citing the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey where stunting was 40 per cent, wasting 8 per cent, and underweight 27 per cent, with breastfeeding stagnant at 29 per cent.

She noted that three companies are now certified to produce ready-to-use therapeutic foods for children with severe malnutrition.

In his remarks, CRS Nigeria Country Representative, Mr Akim Kikonda, said the meeting marked a key step toward improving child nutrition and reducing reliance on costly imported supplements.

Kikonda spotlighted that Tom Brown cost between N72,000 and N96,000 per child for eight weeks, compared with imported alternatives that cost up to N360,000 for the same period.

Also, the CRS Nigeria Emergency Coordinator, Mr. Wilson Kipchoech, noted that Tom Brown had proven cost-effective in managing malnutrition and had been implemented in Northeast Nigeria since 2015, recently expanding to Sokoto.

“It’s easily scalable, and we have seen results, partnering with the government to expand and institutionalise it is highly welcomed,” Kipchoech said.

He, however, expressed optimism that the meeting would lead to a unified policy framework, stating that different agencies have been producing it slightly differently, but now the government will provide a standardised approach.