Hormel Foods Corp. announced promising results of the nutrition research portion of ProjectSPAMMY. SPAMMY, a fortified poultry product designed by Hormel Foods and named after the company’s iconic SPAM family of products, was created to help address malnutrition in children.
SPAMMY is used as an ingredient and blends easily into customary diets. The productwas tailored to meet the specific micronutrient needs of children in Guatemala based on findings from earlier research conducted by Hormel Foods.In a public/private partnership jointly funded by Hormel Foods and theMicronutrient-Fortified Food Aid Products Pilot (MFFAPP), administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition (McGovern-Dole) Program, this latest research demonstrated the benefits of supplementing traditional diets with high-quality protein and micronutrients. During the trial, more than 160 preschool-age children in Guatemala ate either a fortified or unfortified version of SPAMMY on school days over a 20-week period. The fortified version contained the addition of several micronutrients, such as vitamins D and B12, which are important nutrients for children, but are deficient in this area of the world. Both versions were identical in protein, calories and fat.