Tenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

In Ghana, staple crops such as maize, cassava, sweet potato, and common beans are used to prepare various food dishes. However, most of these crops are of low quality in terms of proteins, macro, and micro-nutrients primarily, iron, zinc, and vitamin. A result of this is malnutrition, especially in the context of children and pregnant women. Several short term approaches have been suggested to solve this issue of low-quality foods, but a long-term solution to such malnutrition can be found in the development and promotion of biofortified crop varieties. Biofortified varieties mainly maize (QPM and pro-vitamin A), cassava (beta-carotene), sweet potatoes (beta-carotene), and common bean (protein, iron, and zinc) were tested in Ghana and released to farmers. In this study, consumer preference studies were conducted on these new varieties to ascertain their acceptability by end-users within the context of considering an approach to solving malnutrition in Ghana.