Improving Post-Harvest Quality and Packaging of Rice, Sorghum/Millet and Cassava Products to Enhance Marketability in West Africa.

Summary: The World Food Programme (WFP) and its partner agencies have long been recognized for their ability to deliver food to deprived and resource -poor people all over the world. Relatively little is known about the efforts it puts in place to check that the food they supply provides vitamins and minerals and not just calories. As a result of that, the technology of cereal flour fortification with micronutrient (vitamin/mineral) premix was transferred in twelve communities in the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern regions of Ghana. This was organized as part ofWFPIUNICEF joint project on Tackling Malnutrition in Northern Ghana using fortification of their staple foods (cereal flour) with six vitamins and two minerals as a means of meeting their nutritional needs. A hand-operated mixer designed and fabricated at the CSIR-Food Research Institute was employed for the mixing process. The training sessions were also facilitated by the use of a poster which showed step-by-step procedures. A Group discussion approach was adopted to help participants feel a sense of ownership of the programme and to also
appreciate the intervention.

Summary: In recent years, nuts have received considerable attention as one of the foods that have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health. As a measure to curb post harvest losses of peanuts, its development into spread and butters have gained much recognition, thus, the research to improve this product development.

Summary: Four underutilized fish species, namely woevi or 'one-man-thousand' (Sierathrissa leonensis), flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans), common bogue (Boops boops) and anchovies (Anchoa guineensis); as well as tuna frames were used. They were solar and mechanically dried, milled into powder and analyzed for proximate, mineral content, biochemical, microbiological, sensory and shelf life. Characterization of the fish species showed that they are of high nutritional significance in either human food supplements or formulations. They showed high protein content, good general amino profile, abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids, and a unique source of micronutrients, particularly minerals. The high nutritional value of the products showed their potential for food supplementation in the school feeding programme, although generally these products might be regarded as fish for the poor. Overall acceptability by the school children rated all the foods on the positive side of the hedonic scale, especially banku with anchovies okro stew, rice with tuna frames stew and rice with flying gurnard stew.