Food Processing for Improved Diets is a short guidance document prepared for USAID and its implementing partners to begin to inform design and implementation of food processing activities for improved diets and nutrition. The content is guided by USAID’s multisectoral food security and nutrition strategies, with a focus on the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS) Conceptual Framework. The framework is shown in the brief, highlighting food processing sitting within the center as an important component of food supply. This brief focuses on food processing activities involving small and medium enterprises engaged in minimal processing activities, such as drying, milling and threshing, among others. The brief is informed by lessons from a landscape assessment that explored how food processing was included in Feed the Future activities between 2010 and 2019. Key considerations are organized by four themes especially relevant to implementation: roles of various stakeholders, resilience, long-term sustainability and the do-no-harm principle. A short case study describes the experience of the Alliance for Inclusive and Nutritious Food Processing (AINFP), a Feed the Future initiative that provides technical assistance to sub-Saharan African food processors to enhance the nutritional value, safety and quality of their products.

Food Processing for Improved Diets leaves readers with three key messages:

Food processing:

1. Is at the center of food supply and demand. It can improve diets by linking production to consumption within the food system, offering great potential to increase year-round availability and affordability of safe, nutritious foods.

2. Can take a variety of forms; contextual considerations are key to determining suitable foods and best approaches for processing in a given food system.

3. When planned and executed properly, can simultaneously enhance diets, provide income generation opportunities and promote resilience.