Academic literature on the topic 'Ghanaian Cookery'

AbstractObjective:We aimed to identify factors (child diet, physical activity; maternal BMI) associated with body composition of Ghanaian pre-school children.Design:Longitudinal analysis of the International Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements (iLiNS)-DYAD-Ghana randomized trial, which enrolled 1320 pregnant women at ≤20 weeks’ gestation and followed them and their infants until 6 and 18 months postpartum, respectively. At follow-up, child age 4–6 years, we collected data on body composition (by 2H dilution), physical activity and diet, extracted dietary patterns using factor analysis, and examined the association of children’s percentage body fat with maternal and child factors by regression analysis.Setting:Eastern Region, Ghana.Participants:Children 4–6 years of age.Results:The analysis included 889 children with percentage body fat and dietary data at follow-up. We identified two major dietary patterns, a snacking and a cooked foods pattern. Percentage body fat was positively associated (standardized β (se)) with maternal BMI at follow-up (0·10 (0·03); P = 0·003) and negatively associated with physical activity (−0·15 (0·05); P = 0·003, unadjusted for child gender), but not associated with the snacking (0·06 (0·03); P = 0·103) or cooked foods (−0·05 (0·07); P = 0·474) pattern. Boys were more active than girls (1470 v. 1314 mean vector magnitude counts/min; P < 0·0001) and had lower percentage body fat (13·8 v. 16·9 %; P < 0·0001).Conclusions:In this population, maternal overweight and child physical activity, especially among girls, may be key factors for addressing child overweight/obesity. We did not demonstrate a relationship between the dietary patterns and body fatness, which may be related to limitations of the dietary data available.

Maasa is a spontaneously fermented millet-based fried cake in Ghana. Nixtamalization, a process of cooking and soaking cereals (usually maize) in lime solution, was applied in the traditional processing of the Ghanaian millet-based fermented maasa. During the processing, Lime cooked millet dough (LCMD) and water soaked millet dough (WSMD) samples were analyzed for proximate composition, pH, total titratable acidity and microbial counts were assessed for fermenting millet dough samples. Finally, maasa prepared from nixtamalized and non-nixtamalized fermented millet dough samples were assessed for consumer sensory acceptability on a five-point hedonic scale. Nixtamalization improved crude protein and ash contents of millet dough samples whereas fat and fiber contents decreased. During fermentation, a reduction in pH and increase in total titratable acidity was observed for both nixtamalized and non-nixtamalized millet dough samples. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeasts count reached 9.4 and 8.0 logcfu/g respectively for non-nixtamalized millet after 14 hours of fermentation, whereas for nixtamalized millet samples, LAB and yeasts count reached 7.6 and 7.5 logcfu/g respectively. Consumer sensory evaluation of Maasa produced from nixtamalized fermented millet had improved texture, colour and overall acceptability as compared to the traditional non-nixtamalized fermented millet-based maasa. Nixtamalization can thus be applied in the production of Ghanaian millet-based maasa to improve nutritional quality and acceptability as well as maintain the benefits associated with traditional cereal fermentation.

Abstract Dietary acculturation may explain the increasing risk of diet-related diseases among African immigrants in the United States (US). We interviewed twenty-five Ghanaian immigrants (Youth n 13, Age (Mean ± sd) 20 y ± 5⋅4, Parents (n 6) and Grandparents (n 6) age 58⋅7 ± 9⋅7) living in New York City (NYC) to (a) understand how cultural practices and the acculturation experience influence dietary patterns of Ghanaian immigrants and (b) identify intergenerational differences in dietary acculturation among Ghanaian youth, parents and grandparents. Dietary acculturation began in Ghana, continued in NYC and was perceived as a positive process. At the interpersonal level, parents encouraged youth to embrace school lunch and foods outside the home. In contrast, parents preferred home-cooked Ghanaian meals, yet busy schedules limited time for cooking and shared meals. At the community level, greater purchasing power in NYC led to increased calories, and youth welcomed individual choice as schools and fast food exposed them to new foods. Global forces facilitated nutrition transition in Ghana as fast and packaged foods became omnipresent in urban settings. Adults sought to maintain cultural foodways while facilitating dietary acculturation for youth. Both traditional and global diets evolved as youth and adults adopted new food and healthy social norms in the US.

Ensuring food safety has been a major concern to small and medium-sized food manufacturers especially those in developing countries participating in international trade. In this connection, an action-oriented learning and factory visit by a cohort of 15 owners of food manufacturing SMEs to a world-class food factory in Ghana under the auspices of Partners in Food Solutions helped demystify HACCP implementation in the minds of these SME owners. This resulted in majority of them implementing HACCP within six months. A typical indigenous Ghanaian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) engaged in palm cream concentrate canning was selected for HACCP study and the generic HACCP system was developed which is being adapted for the entire palm cream concentrate canning industry in West Africa. To manufacture canned palm cream concentrate, fresh and ripen palm fruits are harvested, weighed, inspected, and sorted for their quality. The quality palm fruits are washed, cooked at a temperature of 100°C for 30 min, depulped into paste, fiber and kernels. The paste with the fiber is squeezed and strained to obtain palm cream. The fine cream is collected and blended with 0.5% salt and heated to a temperature ≥ 70°C for 10 min. Empty cans are washed, filled with the hot cream, seamed, washed to get rid of stains and loaded into retort baskets and then hoisted into a vertical retort for sterilization. Retorting is done at 121°C for 60 minutes and then cooled to a temperature of 40°C and the product are removed from the retort and incubated at ambient temperature for 7 days. After which labelling is done and the product are cased and palletized ready for sale. The 14 stages of HACCP implementation including the 7 preparatory steps and the 7 principles of HACCP recommended by were applied in addition to 2 innovative steps to the palm cream concentrate canning process [1]. Each processing step was correctly captured in the process flow diagram and subjected to hazard analysis to identify all potential food safety hazards that are associated with each step. The identified hazards were classified as physical, chemical or biological and subjected to risk assessment process using a quantitative scoring method to determine the likelihood and severity of each potential hazard which helped to determine significant hazards with each step. The significant hazards were then subjected to critical control point determination using the codex decision tree. Three steps of microbiological significance were identified in the process as CCPs. These are can seam (CCP #1), retorting (CPP #2) and retorted can cooling (CCP #3). Critical limits were established for these limits as follows: CCP# 1 – can seaming (body hook butting (BHB) > 75%, thickness rating (TR) > 75% and actual overlap (AO) > 1.1mm), CCP# 2 – retorting (120 -122°C for 60 minutes at a pressure of 1bar must be achieved during sterilization) and CCP# 3 – can cooling (incoming cooling water into the retort must be chlorinated to 3 - 4 ppm, residual chlorine content and after cooling, the discharge water should contain ≥ 0.5ppm residual chlorine content). Monitoring and verification procedures were developed for each CCP and corrective actions and record keeping systems have been established for the CCPs.