Citadel Spread is a paste made of

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers. Peanut butter is consumed in many countri ...

, oil, sugar and

milk powder Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

. First developed as a trail food for

hikers Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histo ...

, a Citadel Spread resembles common ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) formulations, such as Plumpy'nut.

Composition and advantages

A key feature of Citadel Spread is the use of

powdered milk Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

in a recipe with no water, making it difficult for bacteria to grow and giving the nutritional advantages of milk with a long shelf life, as demonstrated in a clinical study comparing F100 and Plumpy'nut. Citadel Spread provides a high calorie content of the mixture relative to weight and volume. Another feature of Citadel Spread is the low cost of manufacturing, storing, and distribution. These features made formulations like Citadel Spread a practical ready-to-use food.

History

Frank Delfino, former Skippy plant manager and engineer, remembers the

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

plant producing around 500 cases of a ready-to-use fortified food in the 1960s, using peanut oil with added vitamins and minerals. Skippy proposed a collaboration with the US government to use the product for nutritional needs of children, but the proposal was not adopted. In 1971,

Edward B. Garvey Edward B. Garvey (November 13, 1914 in Farmington, Minnesota – September 20, 1999, at Arlington Hospital in Virginia of congestive heart failure) thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1970 and in 1971 published a book about his adventure, ''Appal ...

published ''Appalachian Hiker: Adventure of a Lifetime''. By the time Garvey published ''The New Appalachian Trail (Appalachian Hiker)'' in 1997, the vegetarian version of Citadel Spread that uses vegetable oil instead of bacon grease had become a popular hiking trail food in the USA.

Applications

Ready-to-use therapeutic foods are manufactured for treatment of

severe acute malnutrition Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) is a measurement of the nutritional status of a population that is often used in protracted refugee situations. Along with the Crude Mortality Rate, it is one of the basic indicators for assessing the severity of a h ...

, as shown in one clinical report. Such formulations support rapid weight gain, supply multiple

essential nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

s and are easy for children to eat because they can feed themselves the soft paste from a tear-open individual package. The fortified peanut butter-like paste contains fats, carbohydrates, proteins (

macronutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excre ...

), vitamins and minerals (

micronutrient Micronutrients are nutrient, essential dietary elements required by organisms in varying quantities throughout life to orchestrate a range of physiological functions to maintain health. Micronutrient requirements differ between organisms; for exam ...

s). Peanut butter is relatively high in calories and an excellent source of

vitamin E Vitamin E is a group of eight fat soluble compounds that include four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Vitamin E deficiency, which is rare and usually due to an underlying problem with digesting dietary fat rather than from a diet low in vitami ...

B vitamins B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. Though these vitamins share similar names (B1, B2, B3, etc.), they are chemically distinct compounds that often coexist ...

dietary fiber Dietary fiber (in British English fibre) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical composition, and can be grouped generally by the ...

and numerous

dietary mineral In the context of nutrition, a mineral is a chemical element required as an essential nutrient by organisms to perform functions necessary for life. However, the four major structural elements in the human body by weight (oxygen, hydrogen, carbon ...

References

Dietary supplements Hiking Peanut dishes Food paste

Composition and advantages

History

Applications

See also

References