The Open Philanthropy Project awarded 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. Project Peanut Butter is a nonprofit focused on fighting malnutrition.
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. The Open Philanthropy Project’s decision to recommend this grant was based on its 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.