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 Health & Beauty | November 2007 
Fortified-Coffee Plan Targets Children
 E. Eduardo Castillo - The Associated Press
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 |  | We don't want to saturate them with coffee. One 150- to 200-milliliter cup a day is more than sufficient to give them the nutrients they need.
- Jose Juarez |  | |
Mexico City - A U.S. company and a popular Mexican coffee producer are teaming up to help improve the nutrition of kids in southern Mexico through an unusual and controversial source: coffee.
Houston-based Voyava Republic and the coffee cooperative La Selva say they have a way to fortify coffee with folic acid and other nutrients, and they want to start giving it to elementary-school children next year in the impoverished state of Chiapas.
The plan, however, is already drawing criticism. State officials doubt they will approve it because they don't think elementary-school kids should be drinking coffee - fortified or otherwise.
Experts say milk and other whole foods are the best way to help malnourished kids.
"It doesn't seem like a good idea, given that coffee isn't an adequate drink for children," the state health department said in a statement. "It's well known that high levels of caffeine can cause problems like nervousness, irritability and anxiety."
But Voyava Republic and La Selva say the poor kids they are targeting in Chiapas' coffee-growing highlands already drink one or more cups of coffee a day.
Though they acknowledge that fortified coffee isn't something to offer all kids, they see it as an efficient way to get more nutrition to malnourished Chiapas children who already count on the drink as part of their daily routine.
"We don't want to saturate them with coffee," said Jose Juarez, La Selva's director. "One 150- to 200-milliliter cup a day is more than sufficient to give them the nutrients they need."
Voyava is already selling fortified coffee in the U.S. under the SPAVA brand name, mostly in specialty stores, and has joined with La Selva to launch the new product in Mexico.
Under the agreement, at least 10 percent of all fortified coffee sold must be from Chiapas.
But the companies are also focused on using their product to help kids in the impoverished southern state, which has one of the highest rates of malnourished children in all of Mexico.
Voyava Republic founder Michael Sweeney, an electrochemist, developed a technique to fortify coffee with iron and folic acid.
Though it isn't the first time coffee has been nutritionally fortified, Sweeney says it is the first time anyone has added folic acid, an artificial version of folate, a B vitamin found in leafy vegetables, citrus fruit and beans.
Folic acid is recommended to help children develop healthy bodies - that is why it has been added to many cereals.
Folic acid also is known as a way for pregnant women to prevent birth defects, but Sweeney and Juarez aren't recommending their fortified coffee for expectant mothers, because experts say caffeine should be limited during pregnancies.
Sweeney and Juarez are confident they can persuade state officials to let them give their coffee to elementary-school children, beginning in February.
"I really believe, personally, that we all are given a life here on Earth, and that in the end, the measurement of that will be by the number of people that we help," Sweeney said.
Sweeney is also trying to sell his technique around the world and has signed agreements with coffee producers in Britain, France, Poland and Greece, and is in discussions with producers in South Korea, Australia and South Africa. |
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