|
| |
|
|
|
SAFPP WEB LINKS
|
|
|
Food Processing
Technology
Food Processing Inputs
Products
Development
Business
Markets
Legal
Information
|
|
FOOD PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
|
|
|
|
SMALL-SCALE
FOOD PROCESSING BOOK
To
move away from ICTs to Food Processing Technologies. This week I would
like to introduce those of you who don't know him, to Professor Peter
Fellows. I have only met Peter once but have been impressed with his
direct and indirect communications I have had with him. 
He is the author of many books including ones on really practical
approaches to food processing businesses, small scale equipment,
indigenous foods and much else. Peter used to work for Intermediate
Technology Development Group where his advice was widely and freely
available - now he works for his own consultancy agency so we need to
access his expertise through the published word.
Lets
start with the first of two publications of Peters that I intend looking
at here. Small-Scale Food Processing is co-authored with Ann Hampton and
published on the INTERNET by FAO INPhO.
The book is also available in print from CTA and IT. It first gives broad
information on a range of food processing sectors such as Fruit and
Vegetables Products and Meat and Meat Products and examines their
potential for small scale processing. It then provides a catalogue of
small scale processing equipment arranged according to process giving a
description, price range and contact details.
Clicking
here or on the image of the book will allow you to browse the book
online. To get a copy of the <<
Packaging Chapter >> chapter of this book emailed to you click
the SAFPP "link-to-email"
....back
|
|
|
CASSAVA
PROCESSING EQUIPMENT
A much more specific view of technology availability is
 provided
by FOODNET
which presents a list of equipment both manual and powered for grating,
chipping and milling from the very simplest to appropriate
powerd equipment. Each piece of equipment has simple and
appropriate information inclusing price and the equipment's
advantages and disadvantages.
What we would like is your information on the sites you know and
use so that we can share these through SAFPP.
....back
|
|
|
FOOD
PRODUCT DESIGN
This
page gives access to all the editorial articles
 of the Food
Design Journal. These articles seem to have a reasonable
technical level that is informative and useful. The
information seems to be well categorised
and is free.
....back
|
|
|
FOOD
VENTURE CENTRE
Venture
is a Quarterly Newsletter published by the New
 York State Food
Venture Center. The summer 1998 issue came up in a research on
preservatives and gives some good simple information on the topic.
It also has useful practical articles on selecting pH meters and sanitizers.
We would suggest using this site as a starting point to access the
site, which is associated with the Food Processing activities of
Cornell University.
....back
|
|
|
FOOD
SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICES
The
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the US Department of
Agriculture’s
 public health agency responsible for ensuring that
commercial supplies of meat, poultry and egg products are safe,
wholesome and correctly packaged and labelled.
FSIS
has a website that has information on pathogen reduction; HACCP, its
implementation and a variety of other HACCP related issues.
It also has links to the International HACCP Alliance and to
the US FDA HACCP Training Programs and Resources Database.
....back
|
|
|
FUNCTIONAL
FOODS ONLINE
The
American Association of Cereal Chemists produces the Functional
Foods Online website. This is an invaluable source of information on
latest research and developments in functional foods and a
searchable suppliers guide.
The
impressive resource section includes lists of meetings, research
updates, press releases and full text peer-reviewed articles.
....back
|
|
|
SOLAR
DRYING
Solar drying is a very attractive option for
the small scale, resource poor enterprise because of the low
capital and energy cost of drying. While it is often stated
that sun drying is a poor alternative,
 for hygiene and
contamination reasons, it is interesting
to note that large quantities of fruit are still sun dried and
in fact sundries is often seen as an organic/green
alternative.
Although we are planning to launch a Food
Processing Technology page with information on solar drying, I
am providing this information now because its such a
comprehensive but simple article.
The article is published on the Infogate site
maintained by GTZ and can be downloaded as a pdf file. It
covers sun, solar and fueled drying of fruit, vegetables and
cereals. The information provides detailed background on solar
and contrasts it with the other systems discussed.
....back
|
|
|
MORE
SOLAR DRYING
Staying with fruit and vegetable drying a good
overview of
 drying is given by the Intermediate Technology
Development Group (ITDG) in a Technical Brief entitled Drying
of Foods. This outlines the basics of drying focusing on
physical principles including the psychometric chart,
definitions of the different drying periods, moisture content
and
 water activity. It then focuses on the effects of drying
on the food such as case hardening, colour changes and vitamin
loss and how to minimise them. It then provides some
information on solar and other types of dryers. Another ITDG
Technical Brief addresses the strengths and weaknesses of sun
and other types of drying and gives detail on a number of
solar dryers and a small electrically heated dryer. The
information is good and much of it can be used to fabricate equipment. You can browse these documents on line by clicking
the images above.
....back
|
|
|
FOOD PROCESSING INPUTS
|
|
|
|
STARCH
PORTAL
|
|
 The
National Starch and Chemical website (www.foodstarch.com)
incorporates information about techniques used in the manufacture of
starch, as well as technical articles which explain the different
applications of starch in the food industry. In addition, the site
includes animated presentations of how different starches are produced
from their raw materials, and a dictionary of terms associated with starch
and starch manufacture.
From Food &
Beverage Manufacturing Review
....back
|
|
|
NOVO
NORDISK
Company
Websites are also useful sources of information. The Novo
Nordisk site provides details about the history, future
and environmental impact of enzymes, and discusses the effect
that genetic engineering, already widely used, has on the
industry. The site is also accessible in a text only version
and has a list of position statements regarding topical
issues, such as enzymes produced using GM organisms and their
labelling.
....back
|
|
|
 THE
FOOD RESOURCE
The
Food Resource is maintained by the Food & Nutrition management
Department of the Oregon State University. Although it has a US bias,
there are valuable links to nutrition site, basic information on food
science topics, as well as a subject listing of references to scientific
literature.
A
detailed index makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for. For
example, the heading “fruits” is broken down into links to specific
fruits while “baked products” is further divided into biscuits, bread,
cake, dough, flour, etc.
Click
on “fat replacers” within the fats and lipids section, for instance,
and you will get numerous related references to decreasing fat content,
using substitutes, product listings, suppliers, etc., as well as a list of
references for further reading.
From Food &
Beverage Manufacturing Review
....back
|
|
|
OILWORLD
The
German website Oilworld
produces data on a weekly basis for ten different oilseeds, 17 oils and
fats and 12 oilmeals. Figures include production, imports, exports and
prices, and cover a number of different countries worldwide
From Food &
Beverage Manufacturing Review
....back
|
|
|
QUALITY
WHEAT RESEARCH CENTRE
The
Quality
Wheat Cooperative Research Centre (QWCRC)
represents manufacturers of wheat-based products and the major
agricultural and research organisations in Australia. Its
website outlines its objectives, education and training
opportunities, research programmes and publications. The site
also supplies a comprehensive glossary of grain industry
terms.
....back
|
|
|
|
|
PRODUCTS
|
|
|
|
MEAT
AND POULTRY PORTAL
MEATPOULTRY.com
is an online community for meat and poultry processors. Their mission is
to be the most comprehensive, user-friendly
 information resource for the
industry.
The
site has a useful “Troubleshooting” section that provides possible
causes and solutions to common problems encountered in meat and poultry
processing. This section covers both equipment and product manufacturing.
MEATPOULTRY.com
has search facility that focuses on quality control and regulatory
information obtained from the industry's leading regulatory update and
quality control resources on the Internet. Click the links at right to
visit any of the quality control/regulatory information providers'
sites.
In
the “Product News” section of the site, you will find information on a
range of topics related to the meat and poultry industry – “Slaughtering/processing“,
“supplies equipment“, “ingredients/seasonings”,“quality control
systems and supplies“, “computer hardware/software“, “consultants
and services“ and “new meat, poultry food product introductions“.
In
MEATPOULTRY.com's industry resource centre you will find comprehensive
information on meat and poultry industry associations and educational
services.
Overall,
the site provides useful information and is worth going through.
....back
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DEVELOPMENT
|
|
|
|
THE
SEEP NETWORK
The
SEEP
Network is a "learning place" for 48 American NGOs
involved in enterprise establishment in developing countries.
A brief scan shows that the site seems to contain a great deal
of information on all aspects of small enterprise that is
based on case studies.
I
believe that we should start developing and sharing material like
this based on our knowledge of local experiences.
....back
|
|
|
 USAID
IN AFRICA
The USAID
in Africa page (http://www.info.usaid.gov/regions/afr/)
is a
starting point for an enormous amount of information of USAID's
activities in Africa as well as some general information on Africa.
It is interesting and
useful to see USAID's reports to the USA Congress and it's plans for
projects in specific African countries.
The doing business in
Africa link reflects the information American companies would use in
their assessment of which countries they could export technology. http://www.info.usaid.gov/economic_growth/trdweb/
presents data on the United States Merchandise Trade with Developing
Countries in 1998. The data is in summary form but allows the
downloading of detailed data.
I have the feeling
that one needs to get to know this site well to be able to get a
view of all it offers and benefit there from.
....back
|
|
|
SAFPP PROPOSALS
This week I would like to introduce an
attempt to facilitate the proposal development process, to
help us to work together within the system required by the
donors.
There is now a webtool that offers an
opportunity for
 African
entrepreneurs, researchers and service providers to jointly
develop proposals for submission to donors and funders who
seek joint projects.
The tool consists of a database of food
based development projects. These are displayed in the webtool
along with a range of documents including background
information, researchers inputs and comments, proposals and a
time line of the development of the project including details
of each submission made.
At this stage the webtool holds ideas
initiated by SAFPP, but the idea is for anyone interested in
developing their idea or project to put there information
online and in that way call for partners.
At an appropriate stage the webtool will
be publicised with donors so that they can pick ideas and
projects early in their development.
....back
|
|
|
FOSTERING RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
One of the interesting new sources
of information that
 I identified from these meetings is an
activity aimed at learning from experiences in rural development. The
activity arises from a workshop in Berlin funded by GTZ, DFID, IFAD, CTA
and the World Bank, hosted by GTZ and attended by a range of
NGOs, Development Organisations, Government and from Europe,
Africa and Asia. The information presented to this meeting,
along with summaries and some additional case studies is
available online.
Case studies published on the site include:
Escape from Poverty: The Case of Ada'a-Liben Woreda Dairy and
Dairy Products Marketing Association, Ethiopia Azage
Tegegne, ILRI, Ethopia
Promotion of Controlled and Sustainable Wild Collection of
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants for Rural Income Generation
- Armin Kloeckner, GTZ, Bosnia Herzegovina
Rural Enterprises Project "The Efficacy of an appropriate mix
of intervention mechanisms for rural poverty reduction -
Kwasi Attah-Antwi, Government of Ghana, IFAD (.pdf, 200 kb)
A Commodity Marketing and Information System (COMIS) for
Stakeholders in a Liberalised Agricultural Sector
Abraham W. Okolla, KACE, Kenya (.pdf, 216 kb)
The Provision of Traditional and Modern ICTs in a Rural
Community to Stimulate Development in Uganda: The Case of
Nakaseke MCT
Richard Bugembe, Uganda National Commission for UNESCO/ Center
for Basic Research, Uganda
The intention of the activity is to
develop a website to present and grow the information, so that
the site will act as depository for information sharing. ....back |
|
|
FOOD-AFRICA - A VIRTUAL & REAL
MEETING OF FOOD SCIENTISTS
I
received notification of FOOD-AFRICA
an initiative focused on sharin g
information aimed at "Improving food systems in
sub-Saharan Africa: responding to a changing
environment". The initiative is based on an
INTERNET-based Forum in the first weeks of April and an
International Working Meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon from the
5th to 9th May.
The
Forum and the working meetings both focus on five important
themes.
and objectives of
-
Reviewing the current research and development
activities that affect food systems in sub-Saharan Africa
-
Identifying gaps in current food and health research
strategies
-
Recommending future research strategies
-
Improving the links between researchers, in particular
young scientists, in Africa and Europe.
FOOD-AFRICA is organised by the Natural Resources
Institute, Institut de Recherches Médicales et d’Etudes des
Plantes Médicinales and International Foundation for Science
and is sponsored by the European Union and the International
Foundation for Science.
As
you know I feel we don't share information nearly enough in
the small food processing enterprise sector in Africa,
possibly elsewhere in the world as well. One of the obvious
problems in sharing is the lack of appropriate forums and the
expense of attending those forums, conferences and workshops
that are available.
But
here we have an INTERNET based opportunity to share
information and experiences in an organised manner - lets use
it and make the difference!
....back |
|
|
ENTERPRISEWORKS
A bit more about the
EnterpriseWorks, their newsletter and their website.
Enterprise works is one of what I would call the
 technology
focused NGOs. They have been active over 25 years in more than
60 countries. Enterprise Works previously operated as
Appropriate Technology International (ATI).
I first heard of ATI through an evaluation of ram
presses in Tanzania by Eric Hyman. This really impressed me as
a newcomer to the development sector.
While Enterprise Works has other technology focuses (including
energy efficient stoves as well as irrigation and cashew
processing equipment) it still has a
programme focused on vegetable oil production. It is
interesting to note that 10,000 units have been sold over the
life of the activity. The programme initially sold only the
manual ram press. But since 1998, 51 motorized units and only
17 manual units have been sold. To me this indicates a
move away from the smaller enterprise and hardwork of
producing oil manually. The monetary impact of the project is
stated to be $ 38 million.
....back |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BUSINESS
|
|
|
|
GROW
YOU BUSINESS
Grow
your business - A weekly enterprise series by Business
Day. The series will help guide you through the initial stages
of setting up an enterprise, from assessing whether you are
the stuff of which an entrepreneur is made and whether the
opportunity is worthwhile, etc. The subjects covered in this
series are: networking, labour law, finance, protection, legal
angle, property, taking advantage of e-business, business
plan, market research, and have you got what it takes?
....back
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MARKETING
|
|
|
|
UGANDA
MARKET PRICES
FOODNET, an
agricultural research network of The "Association for Strengthening
Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa" (ASARECA), provides
daily and weekly prices on commodities sold in Uganda. The system collects
information on 17 crop and 4 livestock products from 17 markets in Uganda on a
weekly basis. In Kampala information on 28 commodities are collected from the
main market.
This
information is available on line in tabular form
and through a
price comparator
which allows the farmer to compare the prices between different markets.
Products for which information is available include millet, matoka, fresh
cassava, cassava chips, milk and fish. Cleverly the current US$ Uganda
Shilling exchange rate is also provided to allow cross country comparisons.
....back
|
|
|
FAO MARKETING INFORMATION
Following the
previous frontpage, that publicised Enterprise Works'
Development Crimes identifying the lack of marketing in many development
projects, I received an email from
Andrew Shepherd of the
Agricultural Marketing
Group at FAO brining my attention to a publication he has
produced entitled "Market Research for Agroprocessors". This 130 page Adobe
document is available for
free download
 from
the FAO site. The document is well done, comprehensive and practical. It
is illustrated with perceptive cartoons and presents financial forms as
templates. This really seems to be a very worthwhile document. As well as
being downloadable, it can be ordered for free by emailing
ags-registry@fao.org and requesting
a copy of "Understanding and using market information (Marketing Extension
Guide), volume 2, 2000".
The publication is on the website of the
Agricultural Support Systems
Division which has Agricultural Marketing as one of the subjects it
addresses. There is also a
list of other documents on a range of on agricultural marketing topics,
some of which are free.
....back
|
|
|
The
Center For Promotion of
Imports from Developing Countries (CPI) is an agency of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and operates within the policy framework set
by the Netherlands Minister for Development
Co-operation.
The CBI's mission is to contribute to the
economic development of developing countries by strengthening
the competitiveness of companies from those countries on the
EU market. CBI considers social values and compliance with the
most relevant environmental requirements to be an integral
part of its policy and activities.
The web site contains an enormous amount of
useful information and tools, from an export readiness test
to a market survey of preserved fruit and vegetable in the EU
- 123 pages of detailed information.
It also provides contacts for advisors for the
various sectors and a process to identify appropriate contact
companies. There is a significant section on
non_tarrif
trade barriers that appears to
be very informative.
If you want to start exporting this really looks like a
helpful site and its free so long as you register.
....back
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LEGAL & REULATORY
|
|
|
|
ACTS ON LINE
 The
INTERNET is an interesting thing that really worries me at times.
Too often I find something by co-incidence rather than through
intent. Just now I was looking for a costing format for a technology
based organisation and happened to find a link to acts on line.
This is a South African resource that contains a large
number of acts that businesses need to comply with, giving some
information on status and changes, but hyperlinking to the act
itself. They also offer a email alerting service which covers
changes. At this stage it appears to need more inputs on
manufacturing and in particular food, but SAFPP will be looking at
this. We should also be looking for similar resources in other
African countries and mybe showing this one around and looking for
interested parties to establish country versions.
....back
|
|
|
|
|
INFORMATION
|
 INTEGRATED
REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORK
This site of the
Integrated
Regional Information Network of the UN brings together news from Africa that impacts on
the humanitarian issues. By it's nature it often covers food and food related issues.
The service also has links to
regional stories and offers a archive.
....back
|
|
|
 EXPERT
CENTRAL
This weeks site is one that
undertakes to address you question to the appropriate expert amongst their
panel of 4 700 experts. ExpertCentral
allows you to ask a question of the experts or register as an expert.
The process is free, but
the expert is able to charge a fee or refuse and answer should he so wish.
SAFPP intends to establish a food processing enquiry service but you might
like to use this in the mean time. I am currently registered as an expert
in the database in the areas of small business, food processing and
chemical engineering. I would suggest that some of you consider
registering and/or requesting advice so that we gain an understanding of
whether this is a useful mechanism or not.
....back
|
|
|
INTERNATIONAL
NETWORK FOR POSTHARVEST OPERATIONS (INPhO)
 The
International Network for Postharvest Operations (INPhO) site at www.fao.org/inpho
has updated its site.
The
update was driven by the need to improve the access to the vast ammount of
information held there (more than 30 000 files, 220 books in plain text,
1200 pictures, 250 expert's information, 20 chapters of Product
Compendium, etc.)
All
this information is now arranged in three main sections:
-
Fact-sheets
(Product, Equipment, Traditional Storage, Cookbook).
-
Publications
(Post-harvest Compendium, Full text library, Photo Gallery, Videos).
-
Services
(Who is Who, archives of Questions-Answers, Database Link).
However,
the most impressive addition is The Global Search which really allows you
scour the information very accurately and easily - a real improvement over
the previous site.
INPhO
aims to add interactiviity to the site to be able to take input
information from users. At this stage SAFPP encourages everyone to use
this facility to futher improve the accessability to information.The Web
site is available in three languages: English, French and Spanish.
However, not all the information is available in all three languages so
INPhO would appreciate any translations.
Congratulations
to INPhO - lets use INPhO as our storage place for accurate and useful
food processing information.
....back
|
|
|
WEB
PAGES BY EMAIL
There
are a number of services that allow the user to access webpages
via email - the main three are Agora, GetWeb and www4mail. 
For
now I will look only at the latter as offered by Bellanet
because it is the system used by Kabissa. What is offered is a
complex free service that allows a range of information to be
accessed by email. One of the best description of these services
is available from Gerald Boyd. This description goes well beyond
just accessing the world wide web and is quite long ««
how to get just about anything by email - part I »».
A
number of organisations then offering
the Bellanet services as part of their site. Some of these are represented below by
thumbnail images of their sites. SAFPP has approached Kabissa
and got their support for the web-by-email service we will be
offering. They were selected because of their prompt and enthusiastic
response to our enquiry and their position that focuses on
African needs.
  
....back |
|
|
GOOGLE INFORMATION TOOLS
Under their
advanced search,
GOOGLE have an option that allows you
to limit your search to a specified domain. I have long used this to
search the .za domain only to limit my search outputs to sites operating under
South African domains - after all do you want to identify finance sources in
the USA when you are looking to finance your business.
However, I
realised this can be taken further - for instance I was recently searching for
beef & animal nutrition information and found it very useful to limit the
search to fao.org. This allowed me to tap directly into FAO's info, knowing
that it would be technical and not commercial or maybe the
 course description
of an American university I had found. Of course, this is not a guaranteed
search as the pages need to have been indexed by Google. However, I seem to
find information more easily this way that by using FAO's search system.
GOOGLE offer
a news alert, which I find very
useful to keep me up to date with what's in the news in food and agribusiness
in Africa. I get maybe 8 emails a week, which link to news stories online,
and pick up a lot that is interesting!
....back
|
|
|
FREE PAPER ON
CIP & GENERAL FOOD INFORMATION
I am sure we don't always realise what is available
online
and wonder what we can do to make sure we access whatever can assist us.
This week I introduce you to an online offer to give you
access to a free paper entitled
"A Guide to Clean-in-Place Systems".
While CIP cleaning is really the preserve of the larger
food processing plant, where manual cleaning is no longer possible, I still
found this informative and have is saved on my computer for when I might need
it.
It users would email me similar links to free
information I would be keen to develop a page listing all this information.
It is worth noting that I found this link through
Food Online's newsletter
to which I
subscribe - I think it is worthwhile to subscribe to newsletters to try and
get close to what is going on online.
....back
|
|
W
T
....back
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
