It’s a small world, after all
A nutrition researcher I haven’t seen for over a year tells me about research on peanut-based nutritional supplements in the late 1970s and early 1980s that may (or may not) constitute prior art. While attending my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in Dallas last weekend, I learn that one of my cousins in France used to work for Nutriset for a year.
The research paper is “Dietary Supplementation of Gambian Nursing Mothers and Lactational Performance” and was published in the Lancet, Oct. 25, 1980, vol. 2, pages 886 to 888. (Will post link to an abtract in Medline soon. Here’s the abstract with a brief description of the peanuts-and-dried-milk-based supplement from Medline.)
The Lancet paper contains a reference to a “supplement that consists of locally prepared groundnut-based biscuits also containing wheat-soy flour, dried skimmed milk, groundnut oil, and sugar, together with a tea drink fortified with 0.6 ml ‘Abidec’ multi-vitamin supplement (Parke-Davis Co. Ltd) per daily portion.”
There are a number of similarities here with Plumpy’nut and some important differences. Similarities include: use of groundnuts (presumably peanuts), dried milk, oil, multi-vitamins. Differences include: use of tea (requiring clean water). Questions to investigate: Is the 1980 Lancet work prior art? Is it significant?
As for my cousin having once worked for Nutriset (my Mom’s family is from Normandy, near where Nutriset is located), that’s quite a coincidence but it doesn’t seem like a conflict to me. In any event, I’m publishing it so that you can reach your own conclusions.
The It’s a small world, after all by Peanut Butter and Patents, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
