Co-Authored by Tara Acharya, Senior Manager, Global Health Policy, PepsiCo // Undernutrition is one of the world’s most serious and least addressed global health and development problems. As a global food and beverage company, PepsiCo believes it can play an important role in reducing the human and economic costs of the issue. Women and children are undernutrition’s biggest victims and, along with other development challenges, undernutrition causes an estimated 3.5 million preventable maternal and child deaths a year.  Folate deficiency, which contributes to premature birth, low birthweight and neural tube defects in infants, plays a crucial role in undernutrition. The human body requires folate to manufacture erythrocytes, synthesize DNA, and to regulate normal growth. The recommended daily intake for young women is 400 mg. Poor overall nutrition and lack of access to folate-enriched food products present a critical barrier to women in developing countries. As part of the... Read more

During her keynote at last year’s World Food Prize, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi stressed the need for public-private partnerships, a recognition that has been mirrored at meetings of entities such as the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization. Last week’s 2010 World Food Prize furthered the idea, with USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announcing the creation of the Feed the Future Private Investment Center. Shah described the project as “a new public-private partnership hub that… will expand on existing relationships with multinationals and local businesses, and facilitate engagement with new private sector partners.” It is therefore fitting that PepsiCo officials were present at the event to continue Nooyi’s outreach of the year before. The World Food Prize allows for networking with experts in the agriculture, health, and nutrition fields, and it contributes to company knowledge of how to put our goals and commitments into... Read more