Milk-and-Dairy-Products-in-Human-Nutrition-FAO

Chapter 8 – Dairy-industry development programmes: Their role in food [...] 329
Box 8.4
Mongolian milk for health and wealth: Combined national school
nutrition, generic milk branding and consumer education campaigns
One-third of primary school children in Mongolia are reported to be undernourished
to some degree, especially during spring time following the long, harsh winter. One
200 ml glass of milk a day would contribute significantly to a school child’s daily food
needs in terms of protein, energy and key micronutrients and vitamins (see Box 8.1).
With these nutritional objectives in mind, the Government of Mongolia launched
a school lunch scheme in 2006 for primary school children (five to ten years old). The
scheme is operated under a public–private sector partnership arrangement with food
companies bidding for local school lunch contracts. Following intense lobbying by the
Mongolian Food Industry Association, the government insists that only domestic produce
is used. Eighty percent of the meals are provided by local dairy enterprises, which
purchase the milk from nomadic herders and peri-urban smallholders in the school’s
locality. Some 200 g of various processed dairy products are provided on alternate
days together with bakery products. The scheme boosts cash flow and earnings for
the concerned dairies and, in turn, milk producers.
In some cases the milk is fortified with the micronutrients that are lacking in the
children’s normal diets. For example, 21 percent of children under the age of ten
in Mongolia are reported to be affected to some degree by nutritional stunting 1
(aggravated by vitamin D and zinc deficiency); 20 percent suffer from anaemia (iron
deficiency) and 14 percent from goitre (iodine deficiency).