Project Peanut Butter — Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food RCT

[Scientific Research] Published: October 2016 Project Peanut Butter staff reviewed this page prior to publication. The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $724,929 over three years to support Project Peanut Butter to run a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effect on cognitive development of reformulated ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) with additional omega-3 fatty acids and decreased omega-6 fatty acids, compared to conventional RUTF. RUTF is primarily used to treat young children in the developing world with severe acute malnutrition, and is generally deficient in omega-3s while being relatively high in omega-6s. Our decision to recommend this grant was based on our belief that there is a reasonable chance that increasing the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in RUTF will have a positive effect on the cognitive development of treated children, and that a clear result in a large randomized trial would be fairly likely to make use of the lipid-rebalanced RUTF standard practice.