Recent research has shown that about 12 million children under the age of five are stunted due to malnutrition from protein deficiency, according to the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA).
Speaking on Tuesday during the Agency’s monthly seminar, Dr Sunday Uhiene, the Technical Adviser to the Director-General of NABDA, Prof. Lucy Ogbadu said, protein is a vital class of food was critical to the growth and development of children and the deficiency of it could cause a lasting damage to a child.
Stunting is a lifelong consequence of malnutrition in the first two years of a child’s life and is largely irreversible after that age.
According to Dr Uhiene, Protein is critical in achieving adequate nutrition for the children, and this government is talking about the school feeding programme to ensure that children have a balanced diet.
“We must take control of our destiny using the work of all the scientists and NABDA is the mouth piece of all biological research and innovation and in this instance the scientists are focused on animal nutrition.’’
Mrs Doris Umeakuana, a scientist in Food Science and Technology who presented papers on the production and shelf-life of Intermediate Moisture in Snail Meat, encouraged Nigerians to go into snail farming.
Umeakuana said that the essence of the paper was to throw more light into the importance of snail meat in the nutritional content of Nigerians.
She said that the importance of snail could not be overemphasised, especially when washed with lime.
“Snail is a good source of protein,” adding that the result of the test showed that snail washed with lime last longer and still maintained all the nutritional values than when washed with other methods.
“The most acceptable washing method of snail meat is washing with lime. This is because after series of evaluation, it was carried out that snail meat washed with lime last longer and has no odour compared to those washed with other contents,’’ she said.
Umeakuana said that the research was also carried out based on the fact that snail could be easily accessed by rural dwellers.