Milk, meat and eggs—dense with critical nutrients proteins and micronutrients and among the most nourishing of human foods—are missing from the food plates of most of the world’s two billion poorest people.

For people at risk of malnutrition or undernutrition, well-balanced food consumption (including livestock-derived foods), ensuring equitable access to safe milk, meat and eggs and increasing dietary diversity will support healthy growth and development and provide lifelong benefits

During critical life phases (during pregnancy and lactation, infancy, and early childhood through adolescence), optimal livestock-derived food consumption safeguards the health, education, nutrition and well-being of women and children, preventing stunting, wasting and premature death

Where poor and vulnerable groups cannot access livestock-derived foods, enhancing livestock productivity, improving distribution and processing systems, extending the life of perishable food products, and providing livestock-derived foods in affordable small quantities can widen and enrich food choices