(IARN) — Many Peruvian children are faced with anemia.
Over 50-percent of children ranging from infancy to three years of age, living in Peru’s rural communities, suffer from anemia, according to the Catholic Medical Mission Board.
Various organizations dedicate efforts to help combat this health problem, which commonly stems from not having enough iron.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), with support from the Beef Checkoff program and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, is educating Peruvian consumers on the nutritional benefits of U.S. beef liver.
U.S. Meat Export Federation South America representative Jessica Julca says USMEF staff continue to work closely with Peruvian Health Ministry officials to promote beef liver, which is a great source of iron.
“We meet with them to create campaigns to promote liver with our importers and distributors. Basically we are teaching final consumers how important it is to have a diet with red meat, especially for the liver in this diet to overcome this anemia problem,” Julca said.
USMEF officials worked closely with butchers, supermarkets, and wet markets to enhance their reach. Early results show a nice adoption of U.S. beef livers.
“We are not only in Lima. We are doing this in intermediary cities, and the results have been good,” Julca said. “Usually they do a salted liver with onions and tomatoes. We have shared several recipes so they can feel more comfortable in doing livers and don’t feel like it’s a medicine. Like I have to eat it to cure the anemia.”
Julca says Peruvians enjoy U.S. beef livers. Data indicates U.S. beef liver exports to Peru totaled 4.113 metric tons in 2019, a three-percent increase from 2018.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
