Technical Abstract: The objective of this study was to screen multiple meat and fortified-food combinations to identify those that optimize iron uptake in an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell model, a proxy for iron bioavailability. Four experiments were conducted to test combinations of meats such as chicken (blood, spleen, liver, thigh), beef (cube steak), and fish (fish meal) with fortified foods (electrolytic iron-fortified infant rice cereal, reduced iron-fortified Guatemalan maize-soy flour, FeSO4-fortified Peruvian wheat flour). From the first experiment, equal amounts of chicken liver, thigh, spleen, blood, or fish meal increased the Caco-2 cell ferritin formation in the meat combined with the infant rice cereal (P<0.05). In the second experiment, chicken liver, thigh, blood, and beef increased the Caco-2 cell ferritin formation in the meat combined with ferrous sulfate-fortified wheat flour (P<0.05). Chicken liver and thigh were selected for further tests. The bioavailability of these meats alone was greater (P<0.05) or equal (P>0.05) to the bioavailability of the meats when fortified foods were added to them. Adding either of these meats to the three fortified foods tested increased the bioavailability of the fortified foods alone (P<0.05). Chicken liver, chicken thigh, and wheat flour were selected as the principal ingredients for an infant porridge because the combinations with the highest bioavailability were chicken thigh + wheat flour, chicken liver + wheat flour, and chicken liver + maize-soy flour, and wheat flour was the least expensive fortified food sold in the target population.