Nutributter®'s new packaging: a message for everyone!

How to ensure proper understanding and consumption of ready-to-use food supplements aiming to prevent malnutrition in young children? To respond to that challenge, Nutriset’s ACCESS department develops a targeting communications strategy. The first outcome of this commitment is the new informative packaging specially designed for Nutributter®.

Designed especially to prevent malnutrition in children 6 to 24 months old, Nutributter®’s nutritional content is adjusted to fit the needs of this age group, when used in addition to breastfeeding and regular complementary food. But in order for this Lipid-based Nutrient Supplement (LNS) to efficiently assist proper growth and cognitive development, proper consumption is pivotal.

In 2009, Nutriset embarked on a project to get key messages across to our target group in an easy and clear way, taking in consideration cultural values, levels of literacy, language diversity and social conditioning.

Four messages, three target audiences

Four main messages were identified to maximize the chances that beneficiaries of Nutributter® distributions get the full health benefits:

  • Dosage: one sachet per day per child, the product should not be shared;
  • Target group: children aged 6 to 24 months;
  • Nutributter® is a supplement, not a substitute for breastfeeding or complementary foods;
  • Instructions for consumption: Nutributter® can be mixed into complementary food or eaten directly from the sachet.

In order to prepare a new educational packaging design, four field qualitative studies in as many countries (Niger, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Ghana) gathered inputs and feedback from three main stakeholders:

  • Mothers or caretakers who are in charge of feeding the child with Nutributter®;
  • Health agents who distribute the product within the health system;
  • National and international organizations, who use the product in their nutrition programs.

Another guiding principle in this process was to put forward messages in line with the Essential Nutrition Actions promoted by major organizations (UNICEF, WHO, WFP, etc.), especially those related to breastfeeding and complementary food.

The result of these consultations is a totally redesigned packaging, combining visual images and written nutrition messages to make sure that both end-users and distributors of the product understand how it should be consumed.

Strips of seven sachets, in seven colours

Since Nutributter® is often supplied through weekly, monthly or quarterly distributions, product is grouped in strips of seven sachets corresponding to a weekly ration for a child.

The seven colours assist the distributors to emphasize the daily use of one sachet, a different colour for each day. Colourful packages can also help attract the attention of young children and make them accept and consume the product more easily.

Educational text messages

On each sachet, the “1 sachet / 1 child / 1 day” recommendation is repeated, as well as the “6/24 months” marking to insist on the targeted age bracket.

Various educational messages related to nutrition practices appear on the front and on the back. Every other sachet of the strip carries on the front the mention “Exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months”, alternatively with “Breastfeeding recommended up to 24 months”. On the back, in addition to the ingredients, storage instructions, expiry date and other legal information, plus a systematic warning that “Nutributter® is not a substitute for a balanced diet or breastfeeding”, one of the six following messages is displayed:

  • Nutributter® is a complementary food fortificant to use from the age of 6 months;
  • Breastfeeding recommended up to 24 months, exclusive up to 6 months;
  • 1 Nutributter® per child per day;
  • To get the full nutritional benefit, do not share Nutributter®;
  • Nutributter® can be mixed with complementary food after cooking;
  • Nutributter® is for children from 6 to 24 months.

Visual messages

To better reach the mothers and caretakers from multilingual backgrounds who receive the product Nutributter®, and taking into account high illiteracy rates in many regions where it is distributed, all the messages detailed through texts are also conveyed through graphic images. These drawings reflect the diversity of the communities and cultural backgrounds of the end-users.

In each carton, a leaflet titled “Nutributter®… a message for everyone!” describes how the Nutributter® strip with its multiform messages can be used as an education tool by community and health workers as well as other tutors.

First batches of Nutributter® with this improved informative packaging are programmed to be shipped early October to Kenya, where the UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) will be distributing them to prevent malnutrition in young children in the refugee camps at the border with Somalia.