Forskede med Danida i ryggen og skabte en bedre chokolade

Da Toms Ekstra chokoladeplader kom på hylderne i 2010 med en særlig rig chokoladesmag, stod Margaret Owusu bag. Hun er Danida Ph.d alumne og seniorforsker på Ghanas fødevareforskningsinstitut (CSIR). Nu opfordrer hun til at styrke samarbejdet mellem industri og forskning yderligere for at skaffe mere mad på bordet i sit hjemland.

Vibeke Quaade

13. december 2016

Læsetid: 2 min

 

Margaret Owusu (above) refrains from being called a pioneer and she asks to be portrayed as an ordinary Ghanaian woman. But the truth is that she is an exceptional achiever. She is driven by a compassion to improve Ghana’s food security.

She is Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Food Microbiology and Mushroom Research Division at CSIR-Food Research Institute in Accra.

Partly sponsored by Danida Fellowship Centre, partly by Toms Group, Margaret Owusu was a PhD student at the Faculty of Life Science, of Copenhagen University from 2007 to 2010.

The title of her thesis is: Influence of raw material and processing on aroma in chocolate.

Together with a team of other cocoa and agriculture experts from Ghana and Denmark Margaret Owusu’s research led to the development of chocolate from improved fermenting techniques of the raw cocoa beans used for the Toms Ekstra.

​ Extra rich in taste with cocoa beans matured on wooden trays in Ghana's rainforest. Toms Extra was launched in 2010. Photo: Toms Group. ​
Extra rich in taste with cocoa beans matured on wooden trays in Ghana's rainforest. Toms Extra was launched in 2010. Photo: Toms Group.

We did great work. We improved on the chocolate taste and we improved on the livelihood of the cocoa farmers, says Margaret Owusu.

10-tray fermentation technique 
Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa beans. Small holders farmers grow 90 percent of the beans.

Traditionally, the farmers will extract the beans from the ripe pods (bælge /kapsler) and heap them (lægge dem i bunke) on banana leaves to ferment.

With the technique that Margaret Owusu and the other experts developed, the farmers spread the beans to dry on wooden trays and stack ten trays on top of each other.

This method gives a more even fermenting of the beans and a better taste of the chocolate.

Note: Fermentering er en biokemisk proces, f.eks. gæring eller syrning, hvorunder et organisk råmateriale nedbrydes delvis og omdannes ved hjælp af gær, bakterier eller andre mikroorganismer, red.

In addition, the method allows the farmers to dry more beans at the same time. It also speeds up the process. While the traditional heaping method takes 5-6 days, the 10-tray technique takes 2-3 days.

Ten tray methoed
To encourage the farmers to use the tray fermentation method, Toms Group initially gave the farmers the wooden trays for fermentation for free. The company also offers a higher price for the tray-fermented beans. Photo: Toms Group

For the farmers the tray technique has been a definite plus. It has given them opportunity ferment and dry more raw beans in a shorter time and increased their income, Margaret Owusu says.

Scholarly pioneer of the family

Læs videre på

https://alumni.dfcentre.com/margaret-owusu-ghana-bridging-gap-between-industry-and-research

Vibeke Quaade er journalist og kommunikationsspecialist