A survey was conducted to study production, vending, and consumption of kenkey, a sour dumpling in Ghana. Information was obtained on the socio-cultural profile of the actors, processing technologies, practices which adversely affected product quality, shelf life, and quality attributes important to consumers. Kenkey production and retailing was the domain of women, and carried out mainly as a family business in home-based operations. Three types of kenkey were encountered: Ga-, Fanti-, and nsiho-kenkey. Production was dominated by the Ga and Fanti socio-cultural groups but consumption cut across all socio-cultural groups. The majority of producers processed 10-100 kg of maize per week but frequency of production varied from 1 to 10 times in a week. Unit operations in kenkey production were labour intensive and manually carried out apart from milling. The texture of kenkey was more critical to most consumers than taste and depended on a procedure called aflatalization yielding a product with a semi-sticky, elastic consistency. (Résumé d'auteur
Background: Complementary foods are given to infants when breast milk alone becomes insufficient in meeting their nutritional needs. The major objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of Aflatoxins (AFs) in Weanimix complementary foods purchased from shops in Accra (Ghana), and to estimate risk of liver cancer development in infants. Methods: In total, 32 samples of Weanimix were purchased from shops in Accra, an urban centre and analyzed for AFs by Reverse-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC). Previously published data on levels of AFs in Weanimix prepared in rural households were also collected. The data was analyzed to estimate infants’ daily exposure to AFs as well as the risk of liver cancer development. Results: AFs levels of 18.8% of samples were above the maximum permitted limit of 10 µg/kg. The minimum and maximum levels of total AFs detected in all samples were 2.51 and 98.87 µg/kg, respectively with a mean value of 16.43 µg/kg. Exposure assessment showed that the minimum and maximum daily AFs exposures were 0.044 and 2.805 µg/kg bw/d, respectively for Weanimix from rural households; these rates for Weanimix purchased from urban shops were 0.014 and 0.55 µg/kg bw/d, respectively. The chances of liver cancer development would increase to 0.6 per year if infants were fed on Weanimix prepared in rural households with minimum AF level of 7.9 µg/kg. Conclusion: The infants fed on Weanimix prepared in rural households would be at a higher risk of AF exposure and liver cancer development than infants fed on Weanimix purchased from urban shops of Ghana.
Traditional processing and street vending of foods is a vital activity in the informal sector of the Ghanaian economy and offers livelihood for a large number of traditional food processors. Kenkey is a fermented maize 'dumpling' produced by traditional food processors in Ghana. Ga and Fante kenkey have received research attention and there is a lot of scientific information on kenkey production. White kenkey produced from dehulled maize grains is a less known kind of kenkey. A survey was held in three districts of Ghana to study production, vending and consumption of white kenkey and to identify major bottlenecks related to production, which can be addressed in studies to re-package kenkey for a wider market. Questionnaires were designed for producers, vendors and consumers of white kenkey to collate information on Socio-cultural data, processing technologies, frequency of production and consumption, product shelf life, reasons for consumption and quality attributes important to consumers using proportional sampling. The survey was conducted in white kenkey production zones and trade centers. Results showed that production of white kenkey is done on small-scale levels by middle-aged women in households with 10-50 kg of dehulled maize processed into white kenkey, 1-3 times weekly. A third (28%) of the women processed up to 50-100 kg of maize per week. Although 62% of vendors sell 50-100 balls of white kenkey daily, 15% of them sell more than 170 balls. Majority of consumers (45.9%) liked white kenkey because of its convenience (ready-to-eat). Texture and taste were quality attributes desired by kenkey consumers. Producers did not have written records of process controls and product throughputs. Inspite of their cottage nature, production of white kenkey is a profitable employment for producers and vendors and is popular among consumers. Product improvement, process and product characteristics could offer scale-up criteria for development of white kenkey production using standardized procedures for steeping times, steeping temperature and fermentation times.
The orange‐fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is being promoted for consumption as a public health tool to combat vitamin A deficiency diseases in Africa. As a staple diet in many households in West Africa, “fufu” aptly lends itself to fortification with OFSP for the delivery of essential micronutrients for health improvement. In this study, the nutritional and functional characteristics of composite cassava/OFSP flours for preparation into "fufu" were examined, and the cooked food was subjected to sensory evaluation. OFSP enriched the nutritional composition as its substitution levels for cassava increased. However, the texture and pasting properties degraded concomitantly during the heating process. Sensory panelists preferred "fufu" prepared from the composite flours with up to 5% replacement of cassava with OFSP. This can potentially contribute 39–77% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance of vitamin A for children and 33% for women of reproductive age and help alleviate related deficiency diseases. Practical applications Reducing hunger and promoting health is the foremost objective of the Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 3. This requires prioritizing specific food micronutrients and establishing approaches to deliver them to the consuming public. "Fufu" is a staple diet regularly consumed in many households in West Africa. However, its nutritional content is low due to the low content of micronutrients in the traditional ingredients. A new processing recipe for "fufu", which uses the composite flours of the ingredients, aptly lends it to fortification with nutrient‐rich ingredients to administer the essential dietary requirements of its consumers. Given the substantial composition of important food micronutrients, particularly β‐Carotene, in the orange‐fleshed sweet potato (OFSP), it is the most considered candidate crop for meeting the critical dietary needs of people plagued with vitamin A deficiency diseases. The importance of this study, therefore, lies in the development of a new "fufu" product fortified with OFSP to avert the vitamin A deficiency diseases that mostly affect women of reproductive age and children in Africa.
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