Systems thinking for local food environments: a participatory approach identifying leverage points and actions for healthy and sustainable transformations.

BACKGROUND: Current local food environments encourage poor diets, posing a significant threat to public and planetary health. Acknowledging and addressing its inherent complexity is vital to making meaningful improvements to the food environment. Using a participatory approach with local stakeholders, this study aims to gain insight into the factors and mechanisms underlying the local food environment and to identify leverage points and system-based actions to foster healthy and sustainable local food environments. METHODS: A systems-thinking approach was used in a Dutch municipality in 2022. Two group model building (GMB) workshops were held with community stakeholders (e.g. local policymakers, retailers and residents). During the first workshop (June 2022), factors and mechanisms influencing the local food environment were identified and visualized through a causal loop diagram (CLD). During the second workshop, leverage points and system-based actions to improve food environments were identified by the stakeholders. Four months after (October 2022), an action-implementation meeting was organized to stimulate the implementation of selected actions. Progress was monitored through brief telephone interviews 6 and 12 months after the second workshop. RESULTS: The CLD visualises the factors and mechanisms influencing the local food environment from the point of view of the community stakeholders. The CLD consists of 46 factors shaping the local food environment, which were categorized into four identified subsystems: societal factors, individual, socio-economic factors, commercial factors and political factors. Eight leverage points were identified within the CLD, for example, 'lobby from food industry', 'governmental food policies' and 'e-commerce and platform economy'. Stakeholders formulated 20 actions targeting the identified leverage points. During the action-implementation meeting, long-term plans were created for five actions. After 1 year, only one participant (policy advisory role) remained actively engaged in three of these actions. CONCLUSIONS: This study yields insight into the numerous factors and mechanisms underlying the local food environment and identified system-based actions as perceived by local stakeholders to improve this food environment locally. The CLD offers stakeholders valuable insights on employing a systems approach when enhancing food environments. More research is necessary, especially into the long-term processes and effects of implementing system-oriented actions to improve local food environments.

Farmland expansion and intensification do not foster local food self-sufficiency. Insights from the Mediterranean area.

Bridging the gap between the micro and the macro scale in modelling food security to inform context-specific regionalised policies remains a major scientific challenge. A better understanding of the relations between global and local drivers impacting local food self-sufficiency (LFSS) is essential. We applied to the whole Mediterranean environmental area (Southern and Northern) a modelling framework for structural estimates (PLS-PM) using qualitative and quantitative methods to combine local-level information from field surveys and participatory workshops with global-level data. Our findings show that farmland expansion and intensification spatially disconnected from urban consumption areas do not appear to foster LFSS. On the other hand, public policies appear key to enhancing LFSS in the Mediterranean area if appropriate to the particular regional context. We outline how this multi-level modelling methodology can contribute to a place-based approach by informing context-specific regionalised policies aimed at food security.

Comparative analysis of school food policies in Australian jurisdictions: Insights for more effective policy action.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: School food policies in Australia have the potential to positively impact healthy eating in schools. While the policies are reviewed regularly, it is unknown if revised school food policies have incorporated the recommendations from a 2020 review of nutrition policies in publicly funded institutions. This review aims to examine the current state of Australian school food policy environment, including national-level guidelines, food safety, allergy, and anaphylaxis management policies. METHODS: School food policy documents were identified by searching the federal government, and Departments of Health and Education websites of Australian jurisdictions. The L'Abbé framework for monitoring and evaluation of nutrition policies guided the data analysis. RESULTS: Eleven policies/guidelines from Australian national and state/territory governments were reviewed in 2023. Four state/territory policies had major updates since 2020. The consistency of nutrition standards improved across five jurisdictions, although a common nutrient classification system would have allowed better comparison. Implementation guides/tools and supporting resources were provided in all policies although their comprehensiveness varied. Policy monitoring and evaluation guide/tools, and local food procurement were incorporated in two additional policies. School principals were responsible for policy implementation and schools for independent compliance monitoring. CONCLUSION: Continued improvement in monitoring and evaluation plans, policy review timelines, and support systems for schools is needed to enhance implementation and impact of school food policies. External stakeholder support may help school leadership in more effective policy implementation. SO WHAT?: Limited progress in incorporating recommendations into current school food policies calls for additional support and strategies to enhance policy implementation and monitoring.

Local food procurement by hospitals: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Local food procurement by hospitals is gaining traction as governments and advocacy groups seek to influence food systems and strengthen local communities, but there is little empirical evidence as to its practical application or efficacy. The aims of this review were to describe the extent, range and nature of local food procurement models in healthcare foodservices, and to understand the barriers and enablers to implementation, including from the perspective of stakeholders across the supply chain. METHOD: A scoping review was conducted following the protocol published in the Open Science Framework Registration (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/T3AX2). Five electronic databases were searched for the following concepts: 'hospital foodservice', 'local food procurement practices', 'the extent, range and nature' and/or 'the barriers and enablers of procurement'. Eligible peer-reviewed original research published in English from the year 2000 was included following a two-step selection process. RESULTS: The final library included nine studies. Most studies (7 of 9) were from the United States. Three studies used survey methods and reported high rates (58%-91%) of US hospital participation in local food procurement. Studies offered minimal description of local procurement models, but two models, conventional ('on-contract') or off-contract, were typically used. Barriers to local food procurement included restricted access to suitable local food supply, limited kitchen resources and inadequate technology to trace local food purchase thereby limiting evaluation capabilities. Enablers included organisational support, passionate champions and opportunistic, incremental change. CONCLUSION: There is a paucity of peer-reviewed studies describing local food procurement by hospitals. Details of local food procurement models were generally lacking: categorisable as either purchases made 'on-contract' via conventional means or 'off-contract'. If hospital foodservices are to increase their local food procurement, they require access to a suitable, reliable and traceable supply, that acknowledges their complexity and budgetary constraints.

LIFANA - toward developing a meal recommender system as a dietary support app for the elderly.

Background: Though a variety of eHealth/mHealth dietary solutions exist, many are ill-adapted to the target population and local eating habits. A specific need exists for the elderly, a growing vulnerable population with limited digital literacy. The LIFANA project aimed at developing a mobile nutrition solution, i.e. a dietary meal-recommender app for personalized meal planning useful for the elderly. Methods: In addition to considering age, gender, and physical activity, the app assured sufficient intake of calories and proteins. The solution was optimized to consider local eating culture in Portugal (PT)/The Netherlands (NL) where it was tested. Recipes (>300) were included and aligned with national food composition dietary databases (FCDBs) to analyse their nutritional values for meal planning. Individual dietary preferences, food restrictions (i.e., allergies), and budget considerations were included in the user profile. The development process involved user integration, including focus groups and usability evaluations, followed by longer field trials in Portugal (n=53 participants, age 60-81 y, 14 months) and the Netherlands (n=107, age 52-86 y, 3 months). Endpoints regarding acceptance/usage frequency, anthropometric measures and (in PT) blood pressure and body fat were collected. Results: 23/34 elderly finalized the trials in PT/NL. No significant changes in anthropometry or other assessed markers, including blood pressure, were observed. 9% (NL) and 47% (PT) of users reported that they would consider using the solution if it were on the market. Conclusions: Via an iterative adaptive process, a dietary app was developed and improved that demonstrated acceptance/user-friendliness comparable to other tools available on the market and allowed - despite the COVID crisis - for stable anthropometric markers and blood pressure. However, it was also observed that additional features, such as a link to an online shopping app, and closer personal follow-up was associated with increased usability and acceptance of the solution and thus further personalization and nudges are warranted to increase employment of such dietary apps.

Other-regarding preferences in pro-environmental behaviours: Empirical analysis and policy implications of organic and local food products purchasing in Italy.

This paper investigates the link between organic and local food products purchasing as pro-environmental behaviours, and "other-regarding preferences", such as altruism, intrinsic motivation and self-image, which is measured through individuals' environmental concerns, volunteering, participation in ecological associations and pro-social behaviours. Using the Italian data from the Multipurpose survey on households "Aspects of daily life" conducted in 2019, and bivariate probit models, this paper shows that environmental egoistic and altruistic concerns, volunteering in formal organizations and participation in ecological associations are positively correlated with the purchase of more organic and local food products. Higher pro-social behaviours correlate positively with the purchase of more local products and negatively with the purchase of more organic products. Furthermore, higher education and better household economic conditions are strongly correlated with the purchase of more organic products, while participation in cultural activities is positively associated with the purchase of more organic and local food products.

Procurement from local producers for food service in primary and secondary school settings: A scoping review.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Australian school canteen guidelines do not broadly incentivise procuring food from local producers, despite evidence of this occurring abroad. This scoping review aims to investigate what is known about local food procurement for school foodservice. METHODS: A scoping review of peer-reviewed articles published since 2000 was undertaken using MEDLINE, CINAHL and Scopus. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Local food was generally perceived as fresher and more nutritious. Small, positive impacts on fruit and vegetable intake have been demonstrated when food is procured locally. Challenges identified included concerns around food safety, varied availability, time spent coordinating food supply, lack of incentive from regional or national guidelines, inadequate kitchen facilities and budget constraints. CONCLUSIONS: There is no universal definition or standard for procuring 'local food'. The main motivation for local food procurement was a sense of social responsibility, however there are barriers, including cost, facilities and food safety. Purchasing food locally holds potential to benefit the local economy but government funding and policy supporting local and small-scale producers is an important enabler. SO WHAT?: Government support to build stakeholder capacity is important in establishing and maintaining these programmes and would be crucial in achieving change in Australian schools. Investigating feasibility of a national school lunch service would be beneficial, as these programmes may have merit not just in feeding children but also in supporting the local economy. Further research is warranted in this area.

Narrative curation and stewardship in contested marketspaces.

We identify value narratives as stories that promote certain product or service attributes as benefits within the marketplace. We show how value narratives reflect benefit attributes that align with alternative versus mainstream market settings. Our empirical focus is local food value narratives within a common local food system with alternative settings being farmers' markets and mainstream settings being supermarkets. Farmers' market and supermarket purveyors choose which benefit characteristics to emphasize throughout narrative curation, enabling us to witness strategic narrative use, or what we term narrative stewardship. We find that multiple value narratives express an array of 'local food' benefits in ways that create a contested marketplace. Narrative deployment at farmers' markets is guided by an amalgam of institutional perspectives, while narrative use at supermarkets is dominated by a market institutional perspective. We identify a continuum of value narrative stewardship (promotion-neglect) within farmers' markets that leaves the meaning and value of 'local food' vulnerable to mainstream market appropriation via narrative voidance, dilution, and replacement. We propose strategies for better value narrative stewardship.

Food consumption in the Canary Islands: nutritional implications of food imports and local production.

BACKGROUND: The composition of the average diet for the Canary Islands' population has been the subject of concern for the region's authorities and nutrition specialists. In this study, the composition of the average diet in the Canary Islands is estimated. METHOD: The approach is based on secondary data on local production and external trade. The breakdown of the total volume of apparent food consumption into specific product categories marketed to the consumers is achieved by applying hypotheses about losses in the distribution process. The estimation of food intake is obtained by making assumptions about the rates of food wastage in the final stage of consumption. This consumption is expressed not only in terms of edible weight and the market value associated with different food groups according to their local or imported origin, but also in terms of their energy and nutrient content. RESULTS: The results obtained suggest a high-calorie diet, close to three thousand kilocalories per person per day, with an average cost of around eight euros per person per day. Imported products, with a lower average cost per unit of energy, provide most of the carbohydrates and fats. CONCLUSION: This study provides a complementary approach to survey-based evidence and also offers the possibility of evaluating the contributions of local or imported food to the diet.

Impact of consumer global-local identity on attitude towards and intention to buy local foods.

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) has profoundly affected the food systems, leading to consumer concerns about the lack of reliability and safety of global foods and a growing trend towards consuming local foods. Consumers have formed multicultural identities, such as global identity and local identity, under the influences of global and local consumer culture. This study develops a conceptual model to examine the impact of consumer global-local identity, locavorism, and consumer xenocentrism on consumer attitudes towards and intentions to buy local foods during Covid-19 crisis. We conducted an online survey in China that measured the constructs using established scales. Using structural equation modelling to test the proposed hypotheses, we find that: a higher degree of global identity will lead to a higher degree of consumer xenocentrism, whereas a higher degree of local identity will lead to a lower degree of consumer xenocentrism; local identity significantly and positively predicts locavorism; contrary to the prediction, the impact of global identity on locavorism is not significant; a higher degree of consumer xenocentrism will lead to a lower degree of attitude towards buying local foods. Theoretically, our findings contribute to the understanding of literature on local food consumption, consumer global-local identity, and consumer xenocentrism. Local food marketers can obtain practical insights based on our findings.

Packaging choice and coordinated distribution logistics to reduce the environmental footprint of small-scale beer value chains.

This study assesses the extent to which packaging and distribution impacts can be mitigated as environmental hotspots in the life cycle of micro-brewed beer. We conduct life cycle assessment (LCA) of seven breweries and compare their existing packaging and distribution practises with three mitigation options; use of aluminium cans or reusable glass bottles instead of single use glass bottles or use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) kegs instead of steel kegs. Findings show that all participating breweries can achieve reductions across multiple impact categories if single use glass bottles are changed to aluminium cans or reusable glass, and further reductions are possible if mode of transport is changed from small delivery vans to lorries for distribution to retailers. The use of PET keg as an alternative to reusable steel keg is a less environmentally sustainable option when beer is delivered short distances, but some savings are possible in long distance scenarios using vans. Carbon footprints per litre beer range from 727 to 1336 g CO2 eq. across the case study breweries, with reductions of 6-27% or 3-27% by changing to aluminium can or reusable glass bottle, respectively, when beer is delivered by van. The optimal combination of reusable glass bottle delivered by lorry reduces carbon footprints by between 45 and 55% but will require significant investment and coordination across the wider food and drink sector to implement. Identifying the best packaging material requires a holistic approach that considers interactions and burdens across packaging manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life stages.

Community Supported Agriculture, Human Capital, and Community Health.

Community supported agriculture (CSA) strengthens the local food system (LFS) and plays a critical role in promoting human capital (HC) and addressing social determinants of health (SDH). Most CSAs develop relationships that build a sense of community, and engage in activities that facilitate access to food and economic opportunities. CSAs may also contribute to personal development, education and income, working experience, and knowledge. CSA principles align with the principles of HC, specifically the pursuit of economic development. While research on the connection between CSA and HC has broadly focused on the economic aspect, the human development dimension has remained at the conceptual level. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential HC contributions by CSA and the implications for health outcomes in central/northern New Mexico. Primary and secondary data were collected through a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire and an internet search. Purposive sampling was used to select 13 CSAs. Eight (61.5%) responded and reported activities that address HC and SDH such as training, job creation, education, access to healthy food, food security, health education and disease management, social connections, and food justice. Given the potential impact, public health must contribute to CSA by generating evidence on its health and social benefits, training practitioners on supporting local food program, and promoting policy that stimulates the local economy, fosters social relations and food justice, and empowers community members. This study calls for research and practice to take a multilevel perspective on the contribution of LFSs to equity and wellbeing.

How did Italian diversified farms tackle Covid-19 pandemic first wave challenges?

The spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy, in the period March-May 2020, quickly triggered a deep crisis, causing an immediate economic slowdown and consequently a strong contraction in domestic demand and trade. The food supply chain faced severe difficulties, although its anti-cyclical nature allowed for greater resilience compared to other economic sectors. In this framework of ongoing uncertainty, it is important to understand the response of farms to the crisis, and their role in the sustainability of the post-pandemic food supply chain, even for future policy interventions in the short and medium term. The purpose of the paper is to investigate how diversification affected the response of farms to the Covid-19 crisis, and explore whether the changes required by the post-crisis scenario can produce opportunities for their activities. The study investigates a sample of fifteen farms in central Italy through semi-structured interviews, performing a lexicon-based text and sentiment analysis. The results highlight the importance of farm diversification in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, and emphasise the role of diversified farms for the sustainability of the agri-food system. These results have interesting policy implications, particularly regarding support for the competitiveness of farms by improving sustainable logistics, electronic commerce and exchanges of knowledge and innovations among farmers; these measures should be taken into account to target the future agricultural, rural and food policies, at both national and local level.

Perceptions of nutrition education classes offered in conjunction with a community-supported agriculture intervention among low-income families.

OBJECTIVE: To examine participants' experiences with nutrition education classes that were implemented with and designed to complement a cost-offset community-supported agriculture (CSA) programme. DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of data from twenty-eight focus groups with ninety-six participants enrolled in Farm Fresh Foods for Healthy Kids (F3HK). Transcribed data were coded and analysed by a priori and emergent themes. SETTING: Rural and micropolitan communities in New York, North Carolina, Vermont and Washington (USA). PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-six F3HK participants. RESULTS: Participants found recipes and class activities helpful and reported improvements in nutrition knowledge, food preservation skills and home cooking behaviours for themselves and their children; they also reported that classes promoted a sense of community. Some educators better incorporated CSA produce into lessons, which participants reported as beneficial. Other obligations and class logistics were barriers to attendance; participants recommended that lessons be offered multiple times weekly at different times of day. Other suggestions included lengthening class duration to encourage social engagement; emphasising recipes to incorporate that week's CSA produce and pantry staples and offering additional strategies to incorporate children in classes. CONCLUSION: Complementing a cost-offset CSA with nutrition education may enhance programme benefits to low-income families by improving nutrition knowledge and cooking behaviours. However, future interventions will benefit from ongoing coordination between educators and local growing trajectories to maximise timely coverage of unfamiliar produce in lessons; synchronous scheduling of CSA pick-up and classes for participant convenience and creative strategies to engage children and/or provide childcare.

The role of food science and technology in humanitarian response.

BACKGROUND: In humanitarian contexts, ensuring access to safe, nutritious, good quality and culturally appropriate food in the right quantity at the right time and place during an emergency or a protracted crisis is an enormous challenge, which is likely to increase given uncertainties such as climate change, global political and economic instability and emerging pandemics like COVID-19. Several international organizations and non-government organizations have well established systems to respond to food security emergencies. However, the role of food science and technology in humanitarian response is not well understood and is seldom considered in humanitarian circles. SCOPE AND APPROACH: The role of food science and technology in humanitarian response and the importance of addressing the requirements of the local consumers within the local food systems are discussed. KEY FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS: Humanitarian food aid policies focus on immediate and short-term assistance to save lives. The implementation of emergency programs and projects tends to induce dependency on aid, rather than strengthening local food systems and ensuring resilience. Transformative change must embrace innovation across the whole food system with an increased emphasis on food science and technology that addresses local food security, generates employment and contributes to the local economy. There needs to be a move beyond rehabilitating and increasing agricultural production to addressing the whole food system with a view to link humanitarian assistance and longer-term support to sustainable livelihoods and resilience.

A taste for locally produced food - Values, opinions and sociodemographic differences among 'organic' and 'conventional' consumers.

Local food has received considerable attention in recent years. It is seen as a response to increased demand for authentic foods, just as organic foods have been considered to be. It is unclear whether organic and local are two complementary or competitive trends in food consumption. This study addresses this question with a mixed methods investigation of why Danish consumers of organic products and conventional consumers of local products choose locally produced food, what values and opinions they associate with local food, and whether there are sociodemographic differences between the groups. The results show that the same values and opinions tended to motivate organic consumers and a group of committed conventional consumers of local foods. However, organic consumers were much more likely to include environmental issues in their deliberations. Another group of local-food consumers did not seem to be motivated by values and opinions when purchasing locally produced foods. Some sociodemographic differences between the groups were found: organic consumers were more likely to live in the capital than committed local consumers; to have a lengthy education than consumers of local foods; and committed local-food consumers were more likely than organic consumers to have a vocational education. The article concludes that while it is to some extent the same preference for authentic food that motivates organic and committed conventional local-food consumers to buy locally produced foods, it is at the same time different types of consumers who prefer (conventional) local food and organic food.

Infrastructures of taste: Rethinking local food histories in Lithuania.

Lithuania hosts a diversity of places that offer consumers a taste of local food, which appear to mirror the recent popularity of local and alternative food initiatives globally. In this paper we show that the proliferation of local foods in the region is not a novel phenomenon, nor is it solely a manifestation of taste preferences or identities associated with food. Drawing on the growing scholarly work on the role of infrastructures in mediating social, economic and political relations, we conceptualize the taste for local food as embedded in broader networks and reproduced through material facilities. To advance this argument, our empirical analysis shows how the infrastructure for local food has been fostered, transformed, threatened, but never eradicated during: the Soviet policies that supported subsidiary agriculture and market infrastructures; neoliberal market reforms in the 1990s that made public markets into mainstays for farmers and consumers; and EU accession that brought more stringent regulations and subsidies. Our research demonstrates that today's taste for local foods in Lithuania is neither a local nor global phenomenon, but an outcome of historical processes that foregrounded the formation of smallholder agriculture, direct sales, and self-provisioning practices in the region. More broadly, our research shows how local food persists as an integral part of a broader agro-food infrastructure.

Promoting access to fresh fruits and vegetables through a local market intervention at a subway station.

OBJECTIVE: Alternative food sources (AFS) such as local markets in disadvantaged areas are promising strategies for preventing chronic disease and reducing health inequalities. The present study assessed how sociodemographic characteristics, physical access and fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption are associated with market use in a newly opened F&V market next to a subway station in a disadvantaged neighbourhood. DESIGN: Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted among adults: (i) on-site, among shoppers who had just bought F&V and (ii) a telephone-based population survey among residents living within 1 km distance from the market. SETTING: One neighbourhood in Montreal (Canada) with previously limited F&V offerings. SUBJECTS: Respectively, 218 shoppers and 335 residents completed the on-site and telephone-based population surveys. RESULTS: Among shoppers, 23 % were low-income, 56 % did not consume enough F&V and 54 % did not have access to a car. Among all participants living 1 km from the market (n 472), market usage was associated (OR; 95 % CI) with adequate F&V consumption (1·86; 1·10, 3·16), living closer to the market (for distance: 0·86; 0·76, 0·97), having the market on the commute route (2·77; 1·61, 4·75) and not having access to a car (2·96; 1·67, 5·26). CONCLUSIONS: When implemented in strategic locations such as transport hubs, AFS like F&V markets offer a promising strategy to improve F&V access among populations that may be constrained in their food acquisition practices, including low-income populations and those relying on public transportation.

Carbon footprint of organic beef meat from farm to fork: a case study of short supply chain.

BACKGROUND: Sustainability of food systems is one of the big challenges facing humanity. Local food networks, especially those using organic methods, are proliferating worldwide, and little is known about their carbon footprints. This study aims to assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a local organic beef supply chain using a cradle-to-grave approach. RESULTS: The study determined an overall burden of 24.46 kg CO2  eq. kg-1 of cooked meat. The breeding and fattening phase was the principal source of CO2 in the production chain, accounting for 86% of the total emissions. Enteric methane emission was the greatest source of GHG arising directly from farming activities (47%). The consumption of meat at home was the second high point in GHG production in the chain (9%), with the cooking process being the main source within this stage (72%). Retail and slaughtering activities respectively accounted for 4.1% and 1.1% of GHG emissions for the whole supply chain. CONCLUSION: The identification of the major sources of GHG emissions associated with organic beef produced and consumed in a local food network may stimulate debate on environmental issues among those in the network and direct them toward processes, choices and habits that reduce carbon pollution. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Indigenous food ingredients for complementary food formulations to combat infant malnutrition in Benin: a review.

This paper reviews indigenous Beninese food resources as potential ingredients for complementary infant foods with the aim to develop affordable formulations for low-income households in each agro-ecological zone of the country. Potential ingredients were selected on their documented nutritional value. The selected foods encompass 347 food resources, namely 297 plant products from home gardens or collected from natural vegetation and 50 animals, either domesticated or from the wild. The compiled data reveal that the distribution of the available food resources was unbalanced between agro-ecological zones. Only a few animal ingredients are obtainable in northern Benin. Most resources are seasonal, but their availability may be extended. A high variation was observed in energy and nutrient contents. Antinutritional factors were identified in some resources, but processing techniques were reported to reduce their presence in meals. In general, ingredients from local tree foods (Adansonia digitata, Parkia biglobosa) were adequate as sources of nutrients for complementary infant foods. Based on this review, local foods for the development of complementary food formulas for Beninese infants and children may be selected for each agro-ecological zone. The approach used is exemplary for other sub-Saharan African countries in need of complementary infant foods. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.