Azadeh Nadjarzadeh - Nutrition and Food Security Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran- Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Farzaneh Sadeghi Ghotbabadi - Department of Nutrition, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran
Fatemeh Moghtaderi - Nutrition and Food Security Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran- Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran

The number and scale of natural and human- made disasters has increased in recent years (1). Major disasters often result in food shortage, nutritional inadequacies, and increased malnutrition especially among vulnerable groups of people. In the initial stages of disasters, acute food shortage and instability are common and the victims are totally dependent on food aid. Therefore, efforts to protect the nutritional status of victims are critical to ensure better resilience (2). The following three key points should be considered to maintain people health: 1) sufficient intake of water, 2) adequate intake of food, and 3) water and food safety. In the initial stage of a disaster, the first concern is to ensure that energy and protein requirement is met. In this phase, based on the latest world food program (WFP) instructions, the estimated average daily energy and protein requirement per person per day are 2100 Kcal and 50 g, respectively (3). Some factors such as sex and age distribution of population, activity level, environmental temperatures, and pre- exiting malnutrition should be taken into account as soon as possible, to ensure adequate intake of energy/protein. For initial days after the disaster, due to problems in preparing and cooking meals, precooked foods are the most ideal options. The distribution of hot meals may be provided after one week if substructures are not damaged. However, it may take a long time for the disaster managers to be able to provide warm meals to the disaster’s survivors. So, ready-to-eat foods especially canned legumes (lentil, beans and peas) with bread, biscuits, and dates can be used in this situation. After 2-3 weeks, it is essential to ensure that the rationed food provide safe levels of micronutrients intake to prevent deficiency diseases. The main specialized functions of nutrition response in disaster are: 1) Rapid Nutrition Assessment (RNA), 2) quantitative and qualitative monitoring of food basket, and 3) implementation of nutrition-specific interventions.