Nutrition and food safety

Building Healthier Food Systems: The Fama Project Explores the Power of Traditional African Foods

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), the Food and Microbiota in Africa (FAMA) initiative is charting new territory in food and health research by unlocking the potential of traditional African diets to tackle malnutrition and chronic disease.  The CSIR recently hosted a Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises workshop, which gathered entrepreneurs, government representatives, and researchers to discuss the challenges and potential of commercializing indigenous food products, ranging from sorghum grain fermented non-alcoholic beverages, baked products, indigenous leafy vegetable, herbs, fruit products and products from tubers.

Switch Unhealthy School Snacks for CSIR Veggie Drink

Food scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) are calling on the government to provide South African learners with healthier food options, especially following recent reports of malnourishment among learners and snack poisonings near schools. The CSIR has worked with various government entities, researchers and communities to formulate and test a healthy alternative that could help address this problem – a nutritional drink made from indigenous vegetables, which are pre-cooked and dried into a ready-to-mix powder. The work was funded by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Developing New Processed Products from Orangefleshed Sweet Potato

In a considered move to advance circular economy, researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Agricultural Research Council are collaborating to develop new orange-fleshed sweet potato processed products and enterprises to market these products. In a circular economy, nutritious food products from diverse sources are derived from healthy production systems to provide healthy nutrition while limiting food waste and leaving nature in a better state than previously. But it calls for food design: the series of decisions that are taken from deciding what crops to grow until these ends up on a consumer’s plate.

Boreholes and Basins to Banish Bakery Bacteria

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is supporting two rural bakeries in Limpopo to obtain food safety compliance and certification from local municipal authorities and the Department of Health. Two Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in the Sekhukhune District Municipality faced the challenges of complying with food safety regulations. With its rich expertise and knowledge about food safety and its associated regulations, the CSIR assisted the SMMEs with the support of the Nozala Trust, which funded the initiative.

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