2. The Problem and Approach
• Forty eight percent of children in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer
from symptoms of Vitamin A deficiency leading to
blindness.
• The Peanut CRSP GP3M Team brought its Vitamin A
fortification technology for peanut spreads, developed and
commercialized in a previous project in the Philippines.
• A public-private partnership was formed, involving
collaboration between Makarere University (MU), the
Peanut CRSP GP3M Team and a small enterprise, Food
Engravers, as the Industrial Partner
• An enhancement of an existing formulation for a Vitamin A
fortified spread, named Nutri-Nut was developed. The
enhanced formulation was more stable, as a result of added
stabilizer to enhance shelf-life, and was lower in cost as a
result of the addition of fortificant as opposed to the current
practice of obtaining the Vitamin A directly from more
expensive ingredients.
3. GP3M Investigators, Dr. Anna Resurreccion and Dr.
Manjeet Chinnan with Ugandan Food Scientist,
Dr. Archileo Kaaya discussing product design,
formulation and process development
4. Peanut CRSP technologies were used in food
formulation and process evelopment
• The fortification ingredients and process
development were obtained from Peanut CRSP
technologies and adopted for processing
conditions in Uganda.
• Using pilot plant facilities at MU, the GP3M Team
and MU Investigator provided technical
assistance to the company in research toward the
development of the formulation of the peanut
spread.
• Use of stabilizer promoted longer shelf life of the
product, as determined from research conducted
at MU and previously reported at the Institute of
Food Technologists Annual Meeting in June, 2012.
7. Consumer Acceptance Tests
During the Uganda Manufacturers Association International Fair, October 4-10, 2012 Food
Engravers offered the new Vitamin A fortified Nutri-Nut product for sale and conducted
consumer acceptability trials to entice product sales. i
8. Consumer sensory acceptance and
purchase intent were measured
• The taste tests were conducted to determine consumer acceptance
and purchase intent. Between October 5 and October 8 more than
200 visitors to the Fair tasted and evaluated the new Nutri-Nut
spread, Consumers rated the product between “like extremely
and like very much” with only a few consumers rating the product
lower. Purchase intent was toward the “will buy” side of the scale
and ‘very highly acceptable.’
• Food Engravers sold their supply of spread available for purchase
each day. The price of 5,000 Uganda shillings per jar, a relatively
high price for the average consumer was not a deterrent to
purchase.
• The additional information collected during the test on willingness
to pay will provide additional market information to Food
Engravers once it becomes analyzed. It is worth mentioning that
the Food Engravers staff was trained by the UGA Team in sorting
peanut to eliminate aflatoxin-contaminated peanuts and offers a
safe product to consumers. The scientific results of the study
presented at the IFT annual meeting in June 2012 in the United
States is being prepared for submission to a scientific journal.
