Nourishing for Knowledge: Fish Powder in School Meals in Malawi

Launched by FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO) · Jul 17, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying whether adding small amounts of fish powder to school meals can improve the nutrition of children in Malawi, especially focusing on their zinc levels—a nutrient important for growth and immune health. The study will take place in selected schools that already have government-supported meal programs and are located in areas near fish processing centers. Children aged 10 and older who attend these schools may be eligible to join, as long as they do not have serious food allergies or health issues that affect eating.

If children take part, they will be randomly assigned to receive either the usual school meal or a meal with fish powder added five days a week for one school term. The researchers will then compare zinc levels in the children’s blood to see if the fish powder made a difference. This study aims to help improve school feeding programs by providing nutritious meals that support children’s health and development.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • The selection of study sites in Malawi will be delimited by two criteria. Firstly, the schools have to be currently implementing a full home-grown feeding modality, where food and ingredients are purchased directly by schools using government, Mary's Meals or WFP funds, given that this modality has been endorsed by the Government of Malawi. All schools that do not implement school meals, are privately funded or implement meals with hybrid or traditional school feeding modalities will be therefore excluded.
• • Secondly, as HGSF programs often require that foods are sourced within a given radius of the school, study sites will be limited to those where fish processing organizations are known to be present. Of these, three districts were selected (Mangochi, Salima and Karonga). As these three districts are lakefront districts, it was recognized that fish may be a more typical part of the diet of people in these districts than in upland districts (Simmance et al. 2022). Thus, one upland district (Dowa), further away from where known fish processing organizations are present, was also selected for testing the intervention.
• • A list of schools will be compiled with data on geographical location, total enrolment, school feeding modality and implementing entity for the four identified districts. For the students to be eligible to participate in the study, they have to be at least 10 years old, considering the minimum age that children can report on their own food consumption . No maximum age is included, as it may be expected that the majority of children enrolled are aged 10-14 years, however, older students who may still be in primary school will not be excluded. Due to the closed cohort design and the duration of the intervention of one term, no loss of students due to termination of the school cycle is expected. Students will be excluded if they have grave intolerances or food allergies or with health conditions that may affect their food consumption. All eligible children in this age group from the selected schools will constitute the sampling frame at the child level. Screening of students for eligibility will be led by the Trial Manager, to be recruited by LUANAR