Page 89 - University of Pretoria RESEARCH REVIEW 2018

Healthy and tasty foods from climate-smart crops
Snack foods such as biscuits are excellent complementary food vehicles because they are widely popular, energy-rich, have a long shelf-life, and need no further preparation.
A team of researchers, led by Professor Riëtte de Kock in
the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences, has focused their work on optimising the sensory and nutritional properties of food and beverages to contribute to the well-being of people in sub-Saharan Africa. With seed-funding from the Southern African Network for Biosciences, the UP team has commercialised a novel, nutritious sorghum-based biscuit range, launched under the brand name SO-YHUM. Made from sorghum flour, the biscuits are tasty and gluten-free, and also protein-rich. In collaboration with the National
University of Lesotho and Botswana University, the consortium has developed and implemented a business model aimed at empowering university graduates to start food businesses that connect science, industry and society.
The team leaders from the neighbouring countries, Dr Rosemary Kobue-Lekalake and Dr Pulane Nkhabutlane, are both UP doctoral graduates. Keneiloe Kganane, an entrepreneur who
has become part of the research team, was selected in 2018 to participate in the Leaders in Innovation Fellowships Programme of the Royal Academy of Engineering, London. In the final business pitching, Kganane was awarded first prize on behalf of the UP consortium.
Panel discussion at the launch of the ARUA Centre of Excellence in Food Security, December 2018.
Finding solutions to food security
Food insecurity in Africa and globally presents an immense challenge and finding solutions has been prioritised across nations, regions, institutional types and frameworks.
In January 2018, UP was awarded the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Food Security, in partnership with the Universities of Nairobi and Ghana, and Professor Hettie Schönfeldt appointed as Director. The aim of the Centre is to create a critical mass of researchers and a network of research talent who collectively can contribute to a common goal
– through research, and the translation of research into policy and practice, to address what appear to be intractable problems.
UP has wide-ranging expertise and a number of existing research platforms focussing on food security and nutrition. In addition to the ARUA Centre of Excellence, it is co-host, with the University of the Western Cape, of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security, a virtual Centre that brings together national, regional and international expertise, and also hosts the UNESCO Chair in African Food Systems.
At institutional level, the Institute for Food Security, Nutrition and Well-being at UP has a strong multi-disciplinary focus related to food security and nutrition, and a wide network of collaborating partners.
In more recent years, UP has
foregrounded ‘research that matters’.
There are many examples, including of food security, that illustrate the effectiveness of research as one mode of response in fulfilling the role that universities can play in addressing priority agendas, with food security as a pivotal cross-cutting goal that interlinks several other sustainable development goals.
Importantly too, the ARUA Centre was launched at the Future Africa campus in December 2018, a unique location and hub for the development of young scientists and science leadership in finding solutions to Africa’s major development challenges.
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