Nutriset is a family-owned French company founded by Michel Lescanne. Several members of his family work with him, including his wife, Isabelle, as General Director and his daughter, Adeline, as Delegate General Director. Nutriset presents itself as an inventor, manufacturer and distributor of nutritional solutions to help tackle malnutrition. The main product of Nutriset is Plumpy’nut®, the original Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), developed in collaboration with a French public research institute, IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), and patented in various countries in 1998. Though Nutriset reinvests around 80% of its profits into R&D to develop solutions for malnutrition and related problems in developing nations, the company is being pressured by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to share the formulation and processes that are covered by patents held by Nutriset/IRD.