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The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Institute (CSIR) in collaboration with Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) over the years have become a driving force for technology transfer programs under the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) project which is sponsored by the Canadian government. This project aims to empower capacity building among women and youth, creates employment and improve livelihoods in Ghana. To achieve this, a workshop was organized by the Western Regiona...

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Institute (CSIR) has over the years spearheaded technology transfer programs under the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) project sponsored by the Canadian government. This project seeks to enable capacity building in Ghana. To achieve this mandate, a workshop was organized by the Greater Accra regional RELC in collaboration with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-Food Res...

This report is in two folds, part one and part two. Part one covers the exhibition on the farmers’ day and part two covers the visit to mushroom farmers

Background: Ensuring food safety and minimizing risks require coordinated efforts of various institutions. The objective of this study was to determine how Ghanaian consumers score the competence of public institutions in controlling food safety risks and the effects of this perceived score on their level of concerns about food safety risks. Methods: Totally, semi-structured questionnaire administered to 444 Ghanaian consumers in 2017. Public perception of the competence of food safety instit...

Marine endophytic fungi (MEF) are good sources of structurally unique and biologically active secondary metabolites. Due to the increase in antimicrobial resistance, the secondary metabolites from MEF ought to be fully explored to identify candidates which could serve as lead compounds for novel drug development. These secondary metabolites might also be useful for development of new cancer drugs. In this study, ethyl acetate extracts from marine endophytic fungal cultures were tested for the...

Healing clay is a rich source of diverse minerals. The relevance of these indigenous minerals in the improvement of antibiotic chemotherapy against prevailing bacterial pathogens is yet to be thoroughly explored. In the present study, healing clay from archaeological context was characterized and used in combination with 19 different antibacterial drugs to test their combined in vitro activity against Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2 155 and a multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium smegmatis stra...

The fermentation profiles, shelf-life and consumer acceptance of traditional West African sour sorghum beer (pito) fermented with pure commercial starter cultures of lactic acid bacteria (L. delbrueckii) and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) were evaluated. The beers from this ‘pure culture’ approach were compared with the spontaneous fermentation of pito wort. Lactic acid formation, pH change and extract utilisation were monitored during fermentation. Lactic acid content was used as a measure...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogen of global public health concern. This threat is exacerbated by the emergence of multidrug-resistant and extremely-drug-resistant strains of the pathogen. We have obtained two distinct clones of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium smegmatis after gradual exposure of Mycobacterium smegmatis mc² 155 to increasing concentrations of erythromycin. The resulting resistant strains of Mycobacterium smegmatis exhibited robust viability in the presence of high conc...

The water absorption kinetics of three cowpea varieties (Asontem, Hewale and Asomdwee) was studied following the phenomenological models derived from Fick’s law of diffusion. Soaking of seeds from each cowpea variety was carried out for 10 h at four temperatures (30˚C, 40˚C, 50˚C and 60˚C). The saturation moisture content was higher for Asontem (106.9 g water/1000 g dry weight) and Hewale varieties (108.7 g water/1000 g dry weight) and lower for Asomdwee hybrid (100.7 g water/1000 g dry...

The physicochemical and functional properties of dried okra seed flour of two genotypes Agbagoma and Balabi were evaluated. The samples Agbagoma and Balabi had 8.90%–9.00% moisture, 16.80%–17.40% protein, 47.80%–48.00% fat, 7.70%–7.80% ash, and 18.20%–18.40% carbohydrate. The mean values of functional properties revealed significant differences (p < .05) between okra seed flour samples studied. The samples’ bulk density range was 0.80–0.83 g/ml. Water absorption capacity and oil absorption c...

Small-size enterprises drying cassava in Africa mostly use fixed-bed dryers or pneumatic dryers. The objective of this study was to determine which of those two dryers is the best choice for this operation. Energy performance, product quality and costs were measured and analysed using a comparative experiment design. Each dryer was considered as a treatment and experiments were performed in quintuplicate at a cassava processing small-size enterprise in Ghana. The energy performance of the pne...

Physicochemical quality parameters and volatile fermentation by‐products were determined in West African sour sorghum beer (pito) fermented with pure cultures of Lactobacillus delbrueckii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared with pito prepared by traditional spontaneous fermentation. Levels of by‐products were also compared with those found in similar beer types. Similar levels of apparent extract, alcohol, pH, lactic acid and bitterness were obtained for pure culture and traditional ferment...

In most developing countries street food vending remains a growing industry providing daily foods for most urban dwellers. Sorrel drink ( Sobolo ) is a drink made from Hibiscus sabdariffa extract, while ‘‘Asaana’’ is a refreshing drink made from maize. These drinks are mostly produced on a fairly small scale and usually for local consumption at home or vended on the street. These beverages are now widely patronized drinks sold on the streets of Ghana. Despite their high patronage, microbial c...

The influence of gamma irradiation on the sensory, acceptability and some descriptive tex- tural attributes of dried P.ostreatus were evaluated. Sensory evaluation was carried out using steamed mushroom samples irradiated at doses 0 (control), 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 kGy at a dose rate of 1.7 kGy/h from a Cobalt 60 source (SLL 515, Hungary) batch irradiator and stored in either polythene or polypropylene packs for 12 months at 28–30 °C. Using a structured questionnaire, 44 male and female panelists ...

Arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are toxic heavy metals that naturally occur in the ecosystem. Their levels are on the rise due to anthropogenic activities posing threat to aquatic wildlife and humans. In Ghana, pollution of some water bodies has led to unsafe consumption of riverine fishes as well as a shortage of treated potable water principally because the cost of treating polluted water has become expensive across the country. This study aimed to assess the As, Hg...

Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungal origin that contaminate agricultural commodities before, during and after harvest periods. A total of fifty-three (53) different foods (27 rice brands, 20 cereal based food brands and 6 pasta brands) were randomly obtained from the market and assessed for their different aflatoxin constitution (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) as well as the total levels of the aflatoxins using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. For the rice gr...

Yams (Dioscorea spp.) are a good source of food in Ghana. This study investigated the storage of seven (7) key yam varieties in an improved farm-gate yam storage structure. Seven freshly harvested key yam varieties identified as Pona, Lariboko, Dente, Mutwumudoo, Serwah, Matches and Akaba were used in a Complete Block Design technique of 3 blocks and stored in an improved farm-gate yam storage structure for 146 days. Formation of buds, pests and diseases, wholesomeness, regeneration of sprout...

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 ...

Sandalwood essential oil is extensively used in perfumes, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. The unique woody aroma of sandalwood essential oil is produced by (Z)-α-santalol and (Z)-β-santalol and these two compounds influence the oil quality. Variation in sesquiterpene composition and oil yield have been observed both within and across Santalum species. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is a technique commonly used to identify and quantify sesquiterpene compounds in sandalwood essent...