India has the highest rates of malnutrition in the world with 74.3%of pre-school children suffering from anaemia. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, 43% of children below three years of age are stunted and 12% are underweight.
In 2008, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) in India approached the government-owned organisation Andhra Pradesh (AP) Foods about working together to scale up and improve their production of fortified supplementary foods, such as ready-to-cook mixes for common meals.
The collaboration between GAIN and AP Foods that began in 2010 led to significant improvements in the nutritional quality and packaging of the food that AP Foods produces. It also demonstrated how to use business-centred practices to achieve improved nutrition product quality and efficiency for public sector social objectives.
This case study describes the approach taken and highlights the challenges, opportunities and lessons learned.