School-oriented fresh milk programme kick-started

The ministries of Education and Training, and Health, and the central province of Nghe An’s People’s Committee have launched a school-oriented fresh milk programme, which is backed by TH Group.

The programme is aimed to improve the Vietnamese people’s physical conditions and contribute to the implementation of the government’s nutrition policy for children.

Under the programme, more than 428,300 pupils in Nghe An will be given a pack of fresh milk (180 mililitres) a day, for five days a week during the 2015-2016 school year.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that this programme was quite effective and would be multiplied in many other provinces and cities nationwide.

Over the past few years, TH Group has been supporting the government in building a national-level school-oriented fresh milk programme, which has been piloted in Nghe An and seen by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Vietnam as being very important to all children, especially those of 2-12 years old.

According to a TH Group study on the usage of its kid-oriented fresh milk by over 3,600 pupils in Nghe An during September 2013-June 2014, light-weight and stunting malnutrition reduced 3 and 1.5 per cent, respectively, far higher than Vietnam’s average reduction figures of 0.9 and 0.8 per cent, respectively, during 2012-2013.

Also under the study conducted by Vietnam Nutrition Institute, deficiency of some major nutritious substances like Vitamin A, iron and zinc has also significantly improved.

The group’s milk formula is designed by the institute with advice from French top nutrition experts.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien said that this study’s results were being used as the basis for the national-level school-oriented fresh milk programme, which was aimed to improve Vietnamese people’s mental and physical well-being. The programme would officially be enacted by the government in the very near future.

According to DSM Nutritional Products under Swiss-based DSM, a world leader in nutritional fortification, 25 per cent of Vietnamese children are still stunting, which is a key indicator of malnutrition and it will badly affect a kid’s life. Vietnam is currently faced with big deficiencies of vitamin D for kids, which could cause irascibility and cold perspiration and make them easily vulnerable to infection.

DSM has provided its consultancy for TH Group to make new fresh sterilised fresh milk products, known as TH true MILK - formula TOPKID, used for kids of one-six years old.

Over the past two years, TH Group has presented nearly 18 million glasses of fresh milk to pupils in 49 provinces and cities in Vietnam.