Research for Development and Scaling Staple-Fish Products for Enhanced Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days of Life

Supported by USAID through the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, FishFirst! Zambia is a joint initiative of researchers at Mississippi State University and WorldFish (which leads the CGIAR initiative on Aquatic Foods). FishFirst! Zambia is focused on research for developing and scaling staple-fish products for enhanced nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life (from conception until age two years). FishFirst! Zambia’s goal is to increase the quality and quantity of fish benefitting nutrition and food security in Zambia, particularly for infants and young children (IYC) in the first 1,000 days of life (from conception until age 2 years) and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. A primary outcome of FishFirst! Zambia was development of a novel locally sourced, high-quality dried fish-based protein/micronutrient blend, Complementary Food for Africa+Dried Fish Powder (ComFA+Fish). Important project outcomes included a nutrient analysis of Kapenta dried fish powder and three