Objectives The goal of this project is to determine the efficacy of a daily intake of locally available, low cost meat as a complementary food for young children aged 6-18 months who are otherwise dependent on continued breast feeding and locally available non-fortified plant foods only. Efficacy will be determined by public health outcomes, including infectious disease morbidity and both physical and cognitive development, with linear growth as the primary outcome measure. Other outcome measures required for interpretation of these results are food and nutrient intake; biomarkers of key micronutrient status; zinc absorption and measures of host factor that might compromise the effects of optimizing nutrition.