Nutritional guidelines for complementary foods and complementary food supplements supported by GAIN


This document provides detailed nutritional guidelines for GAIN-supported projects for infants and young children. The guidelines delineate characteristics and nutrient levels for three types of products: 

  1. Fortified blended foods (FBF) which are used in addition to good-quality traditional local foods.
  2. Complementary food supplements (CFS) which are fortified food-based products to be added to other foods.
  3. Micronutrient powders (MNP) which are home fortificants containing only vitamins and minerals that are used to fortify the complementary food consumed by the child.

GAIN supports companies and agencies in the development, production and marketing of these three types of products to improve the nutritional status of older infants and young children in several developing countries. GAIN works with manufacturers to modify products to keep costs low and nutritional quality as high as feasible.