Originally published on Corn Commentary

A newly developed food aid product made from corn and soybeans can help provide needed nutrition for hungry children.

The fully cooked food-aid product is called Instant Corn Soy Blend and it was developed by USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists to supplement meals, particularly for young children. The work was led by food technologist Charles Onwulata at the ARS Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit in Wyndmoor, Pa.

Onwulata developed the new food product using the same type of machines that are used to make fully cooked puffed snacks and cereals. “Cheese puffs” and “cereal puffs,” for example, have been popular in the United States for more than 50 years. The extrusion technology used to make Instant Corn Soy Blend cooks food completely in a short period of time under high heat and high pressure. The crunchy, fully cooked product exits the extruder through an opening at the end of the machine in less than two minutes. The resulting Instant Corn Soy Blend is then crushed and milled to form the ration.

Instant Corn Soy Blend could also soon be purchased for the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service-administered McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, which provides U.S. agricultural products for school feeding and other projects in more than 30 countries.

Read more about it from ARS here.