By Ebele Orakpo

“We need to strengthen research for efficiently produced healthy food, while ensuring the availability of food at affordable prices…” – Paul Bulcke, CEO of Nestlé

A hungry man is an angry man, says a popular adage and one can only imagine what an angry man is capable of doing. There is absolute need  for the world to be food secure. To this end, scientists at Lapai, Niger State-based Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, IBBU’s Centre for Applied Sciences & Technology Research: Food Science & Technology Programme, came up with innovations aimed at preserving and adding value to agricultural produce. They spoke with Vanguard Learning at the 6th National Universities Research and Development Fair held at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka in March. Although Nigeria produces a lot of food during the farming season, over 50% of the produce is lost due to lack of proper storage facilities. 

Excerpts:

Packaged Egg Powder

“Egg powder is a highly dehydrated egg. They may be produced by various methods such as spray drying, vacuum drying, or freeze-drying. We employed the technology of foam-mat drying to dehydrate freshly purchased eggs. The eggs were washed, left to dry at room temperature, weighed and then cracked with a kitchen knife. Dehydrated samples were scrapped off the aluminium trays and grinded with a grinder (Corona) to obtain fine particle sizes.

*IBBU Instant pounded yam flour; *Egg powder; We employed the technology of foam-mat drying to dehydrate freshly purchased eggs

The sieved samples were then packaged as powdered whole egg (WE), powdered egg white (EW) and powdered egg yolk (EY). Egg powder can become a sustained method of preserving egg without significant loss of nutrients.

Fortified instant pounded yam flour

Every year, Niger State produces several tons of yams that require further value-added processing, preservation and packaging; the researchers conducted research trials to enhance preservativeness and storage of yam flour.

Instant pounded (poundo) yam flour is made from dehydrated and grounded (comminuted) yam peels. Traditionally, pounded yam is made by pounding boiled yam with a pestle in a very big mortar with concomitant addition of some quantities of water to make it soft and pliable.

Instant pounded yam flour is made by boiling hot water which is used to pregelatinize the carbohydrate and then turn it with a paddle or spoon depending on the size of the yam flour. The research work has enabled the development of novel yam flour for instant pounded yam production. It has also produced pounded yam which the colour and flavour were not adversely affected. The researchers areDennis Balogu; Cornelius Orishagbemi; Vincent Balogu, Theophilus Ikegwu and Babatunde Jubril.