By George Munene
JKUAT’s EU-Funded Food Fortification Project has received a small-scale dosifier unit from Sanku to enhance its effort in training small-scale millers on fortification.
Over 243 million Africans are undernourished, largely because of a starchy diet lacking vitamins and minerals. Local millers produce over 90 per cent of most maize flour consumed by African consumers, they have however remained unable to fortify flours with essential nutrients; iron, B12, zinc, and folic acid; as most industrial millers, until now.
The Sanku Dosifier enables the ‘dosing’ of flour with precise nutrient ratios to ensure a healthy diet. The company has thus far outfitted over 300 flour mills in East Africa and plans to reach 15,000 more by 2025 serving over 100 million people.
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JKUAT-EU Funded Food Fortification Project Coordinator, Prof. Daniel Sila acknowledged that there are small and medium-scale millers who do not have the capacity to do fortification due to inadequate knowledge and/or lack of equipment
To play their part in ensuring fortification compliance, Prof. Sila said the unit will come in handy when building the capacity of local small-scale farmers.
“Fortification is a costly process and I want to acknowledge Sanku’s effort in ensuring the small-scale millers produce quality fortified flour. We will use the Dosifier unit to do demonstrations of the fortification process from beginning to the end to the small-scale miller who visits our lab,” said Prof. Sila.
The device injects nutrient premix into flours that are detected to carry weight losses. It is a fully-automatic user-centric machine that ensures the highest efficiency.
While acknowledging that food fortification is common in developed countries, Sanku Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Felix Brooks said, large-scale fortification programs have limited reach in Africa.
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JKUAT Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, Production and Extension, Prof. Jackson Kwanza thanked Sanku for the donation and assured them that the university, through the EU Funded Food Fortification Project, will utilize the Dosifier to empower and build the capacity of the millers in the community.
“Every single one of the devices installed is connected to a centralized dashboard through a cellular link, allowing Sanku to monitor the real-time data generated. We always make sure that the dosifiers are functioning correctly ensuring that millers always have the tools that they need to fortify their flour,” said Mr. Brooks.
Courtesy: JKUAT Corporate Communications Office