from: AJFAND (click image for full story online)

The paper addressed the socioeconomic importance of indigenous vegetables, the potential for leafy green vegetables in Cameroon and [...]]]> This paper published in African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND) reaveals the simple constraints which seem to apply to much of food distribution in Africa.

The paper addressed the socioeconomic importance of indigenous vegetables, the potential for leafy green vegetables in Cameroon and post harvest losses and processing. Amongst its conclusions are:

The low capital requirements for getting into this market and the relative lack of barriers also meant that this was a competitive market, and earnings were thus, generally low.

Because appropriate packaging was not available, transportation and handling caused physical damage that later resulted in losses.

The sun- dried vegetables were not appealing to consumers because the appearance was unattractive due to re-wetting during drying and possible contamination by flying objects and domestic livestock.

Producing and marketing indigenous vegetables in Cameroon hold great promise to provide a livelihood to the rural and peri-urban poor families through providing employment, and can contribute significantly towards poverty alleviation and food

An informative paper, but does it highlight something about how we in Africa ignore simple things like some packaging and a bit of evaporative cooling storage – are we too unconcerned about quality or does the consumer just not have the money or are we just too lazy. It doesn’t seem to be the money issue because the South African Supermarkets seem to making good business by filling the niche or quality vegetables!

Now an interesting call from General Mills has made it into the press.

from: General Mills Innovation System (click image for full story online)

Besides being able to pass the opportunity on to [...]]]> In a previous post we covered General Mill’s Innovation Network which is aimed at brining partners into their company’s research system.

Now an interesting call from General Mills has made it into the press.

Besides being able to pass the opportunity on to those of our subscribers who might be interested in microwave/food interactions, I find it interesting what the call tells about General Mills product strategy.

The research is into the development of packaging and food grade edible materials which can reflect microwaves and a solution that can block conductive heat transfer between adjacent hot and frozen components of a food. Combining and alternating such layers would in my view allow the construction of a microwavable Gâteau Norvégien. This, which I guess is what the USA calls Baked Alaskan, is a cake filled with ice cream that is traditionally flambéed before eating. With the technology in place I suspect there are all sorts of other possibilities!

There is a good section on milling equipment with brief descriptions of a range of mills explaining material milled, size, product and special characteristics. These include hammer, stone, plate and roller mills.

from: ABC Hansen Africa [...]]]> The ABC Hansen Africa website contains a broad range of good technical information on the products they sell.

There is a good section on milling equipment with brief descriptions of a range of mills explaining material milled, size, product and special characteristics. These include hammer, stone, plate and roller mills.

A separate section allows datasheets, with most of the technical data, to be downloaded for specific equipment.

ABC Hansen supply Grain Storage and Handling Equipment, Oil Expelling Equipment, Maize and Wheat Mills, Milling Supplies and associated equipment to the whole world.

With their own manufacture and agencies from European, American and Eastern companies, the ABCAfrica Group believe they can help solve most agriculture related problems.