I have for a long time worried and talked about waste and the attention it deserves when considering nutrition in Africa.

In the past I focussed on the food which could have been available for the poor and malnourished if it hadn’t been lost and on reusing for other purposed if it couldn’t be used as food.

But now a few reports have made me come to see that this is much wider context. The first by the UK’s Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) quantified the household waste of food in the UK.

This report finds that 28% of the mass and 32% of the value of all food bought in the UK is wasted.

While this is important to the UK food chain it also effects the rest of the world as the food chains runs back to the farm, maybe in Africa where 30% too much energy, water and labour have been used satisfying the UK food market!

Another in the series which simply links to the websites of Food Processing Companies in Africa. It is hoped that the industry can benefit from a knowledge of who’s doing what – either through the establishment of new businesses or through trading.

Coast Coconut producers a “virgin” coconut oil by using small scale processing at the farmer rather than the traditional method of producing copra which is exported to a regional factor for oil extraction.

While this seems not to yet be a sustainable enterprise, it will be interesting to watch its development. The small scale technology is attractive because some 90% of the world’s coconuts are grown by small farmers.

contact details

Kenya
simeonokello@yahoo.com

United States
sales@basabody.com
feedback@basabody.com

Another in the series which simply links to the websites of Food Processing Companies in Africa. It is hoped that the industry can benefit from a knowledge of who’s doing what – either through the establishment of new businesses or through trading.

Mongozo is African based in the materials it uses to produce beer, but seems to be Holland based on the brewing and retail side. I am following up with them to understand where the brewery is and what opportunities there are for other products eg Marula.

contact details

Mongozo BV
Posbus 5129
5800 GC Venray
Nethrlands

31 478 550 968
31 378 550 969 (fax)
info@mongozo.eu

Trans Fats are one of the newer health threats that have arisen out of new technology introduced to the Food Processing Industry.

In the 60s we seemed to see that saturated fats were the cause of health problems – especially the emotive heart attach. There was therefore a move away from animal fats and in particular butter. To achieve this consumers were encouraged to change to margarine, which was produced from unsaturated fats.

Since then we have learnt a lot more about saturated fat and health and have now identified a byproduct (trans fat) of the margarine process which is positively dangerous.

The review below can be downloaded for free and covers the subject in great depth.

We had the carbon footprint, but now its the water footprint that is threatening to constrain how we make food.

The water footprint concept is introduced because of the overall shortage of water that is expected as a result of the growing population and the changes in eating habits.

Some of the interesting examples given in the article are:

it is estimated the 4,645 average liters of water that Britons consume daily leads the country to import 62 percent of its water sources

livestock production requires the most water resources in the food chain. One hamburger, for instance, needs 2,400 liters of water on average.

This manual is a publication of Agromisa and covers the preservation of fruit and vegetables. It is available as a free pdf for online download and in print at a cost of 8.49 Euro from Agromisa.

The images below are clips from the manual and presented to help in illustrating the nature of the information.

• detailed background information is presented on spoilage and how various preservation methods operate
  
• practical information on fruit and vegetable preparation for preservation is provided
  
• heating, drying, pickling, salting and jam making are covered with practical and applicable information
  
• while equipment designs are not provided illustrations provide enough detail to allow a mechanically minded person to construct equipment
  
  
• some information is also provided on setting up an enterprises based on the technology described
  
• practical details (temp, dryer loading, losses, moisture & dryness test) are provided for a range of products
  

For those users who are interested in the scientific basis of food science and food safety as a background to food processing there is a lot of useful and interesting information available online at no cost. In this series I will identify information and sources.

This review of fermented foods is of particular interest to Africans as many of our traditional foods are fermented. The review by Dr K.H. Steinkraus, PhD.

The introduction to the review reveals the scope

Introduction

Fermented foods are food substrates that are invaded or overgrown by edible microorganisms whose enzymes, particularly amylases, proteases, lipases hydrolyze the polysaccharides, proteins and lipids to nontoxic products with flavors, aromas and textures pleasant and attractive to the human consumer. If the products of enzyme activities have unpleasant odors or undesirable, unattractive flavors or the products are toxic or disease producing, the foods are described as spoiled.

Fermentation plays at least five roles in food processing:
(1) Enrichment of the human dietary through development of a
wide diversity of flavors, aromas and textures in food;
(2) Preservation of substantial amounts of food through lactic
acid, alcoholic, acetic acid, alkaline fermentations and high salt
fermentations;
(3) Enrichment of food substrates biologically with vitamins,
protein, essential amino acids and essential fatty acids;
(4) Detoxification during food fermentation processing and
(5) a decrease in cooking times and fuel requirements.

The review covers

• classification of fermentation types

• the evolution of fermentation based processes
• the safety of products produced by fermentation processes
• a description of fermentation processes
• nutritional aspects of fermented foods
• enrichment of food through fermentation

The video is shows the juice pressing process used by Woods Cider Mill in the apple cider process.

What I find interesting and worthy of thought are:

• the potential to use the liquid extraction process on other separations – eg cashew apples, spent grain from brewing, cassava pressing in washing process

• the simplicity of the technology and it robustness (no close tolerance, no electrical needs if apples are crushed by hand –
• the minimal technology support needs

• the type of process and equipment than can be used, in a safe and hygenic operation, so long as the necessary processes are in place
• the possibilities of carrying out the process on a reasonably large scale
  
  
  from: mcnaudio on utube
  (click image for utube homepage)

   

This article which is part of the UK ciderwiki which is a free resource aimed at promoting real apple cider.

It describes in detail how to make a apple juice press using wood, cloth and a hydraulic jack.

This is really detailed as can be seen from the few pictures below and would allow anyone with woodworking skills to make a press.

Basically the crushed fruit is wrapped in cloth (called cheeses) and stacked in the press. Pressure is then places on the stack forcing the juice through the cloth producing a cloudy apple juice.

This video shows a press working – the operating conditions are not what the would need to be for a juice making operation!

It seems to me that this kind of press would work well with many fruits – pineapple & cashew apple as well as deciduous and citrus fruits.