Currently, Food Programmes :Aid group Urges Switch to Dairy, Egg-Based Food Aid

The international medical charity MSF called on Monday for food aid to be based on dairy products and eggs instead of cereals, saying this could save the lives of tens of thousands of hungry children.

MSF, Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders), said that donor governments should earmark 3.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) a year for the distribution of such rations with added vitamins, minerals and protein.

"Currently, food program mes targeted at moderately malnourished children are mainly cereal-based and lack many of the nutrients young children need," Christophe Fourier, president of MSF's International Council, told a news briefing.

He said a switch to dairy and egg products, which may be in the form of concentrates or nutrition bars, would greatly reduce the number of child deaths -- now running at about 3 to 3.5 million a year among malnourished children under the age of 5.