SUSTAIN originated as a volunteer-based initiative to share food technology expertise with developing countries. Its early programs supported developing country food industries striving to improve product quality, food safety, packaging and marketing. SUSTAIN volunteers, drawn largely from U.S. food industries, provided requesting industries and organizations with hands-on expertise to achieve these goals.

In 1999 SUSTAIN launched operations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose goal remains innovative food technology applications to improve nutrition in developing countries. Program resources support the development and application of technologies to address nutritional challenges such as the pervasive problem of micronutrient, protein and energy deficiencies (particularly among women and children).

With the support of charitable foundations, public agencies, industry and individuals we continue to focus program activities on quality and nutritional enhancements of widely consumed food products to help alleviate malnutrition and improve quality of life in developing countries. Our major recent initiatives have yielded a prototype tool for testing and ranking the efficacies of iron food fortificants, a proven technology system for enriching wet milled tortillas (made and sold daily throughout Mexico) with health essential micronutrients, and recommendations for enhanced quality oversight and formulation of international food aid.