Unique nutritious foods made at Mak

Makerere University students last week showcased an assortment of delicious cakes, fruit yoghurt, cookies, and juices they have created from everyday plants.

Some of the rare products from the students of the Department of Food Technology and Human Nutrition included avocado cakes, cookies from jackfruit seeds, yoghurt from coffee beans, unique peanut butter with five ingredients of soya, mukene, groundnuts, and simsim; and ketchup made with mango as a sweetener.

The students currently sell all their products on campus as they wait for more support to expand beyond the university premises.

Dr Julia Kigozi, the dean of the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering, said they trained the students to produce the foods to ensure every student who passes through the school gets not only theory, but also practical hands-on skills.

“Our terrain in the country right now is that when you educate a child, they might not get a job immediately. If they are lucky and have a family doing business, they may pick up the skills. It is against this background that we started this initiative which is now showing positivity,” she said.

In 2020, Makerere University unveiled a 10-year strategic plan to run up to 2030 to guide the university to become the lead hub for knowledge generation for societal transformation and development.

The plan was to make the university sustainable, be research-led and responsive and churning out a highly productive workforce.

 Three years later, some of the students have started showcasing products, which the university management links to proper implementation of the plan.

Products

Tima cakes

These are made by a group of 15 students led by Alex Okole. He says they mix wheat flour with soya, which keeps the cakes safe for consumption for seven days.

Mak Avocado cakes

This cake, Joseph Mbabazi, the team leader, says are good for human health as they prevent cardiovascular diseases. During the process, he says they reduce the amount of margarine and mix in some avocado, making it safe for consumption.

Mak Fruit Yoghurt

Using coffee beans and mango, the students led by Isaac Mukalazi, who is pursuing a Bachelor in Agriculture Engineering, are making fruit yogurt. “We are making healthy yoghurt and adding value to our available crops,” he says. He says their yoghurt is pure since they don’t add any flavour making it healthier.

Mak Cookies

Prossy Mbwali, a first year student, leads this group. The group of eight, she says, uses jackfruit seeds, which are rich in resistant starch, and some wheat flour to make the cookies. She says: “Some 700mg of wheat flour, and 300mg of flour from dry jackfruit seeds enable us to produce 100 packets of cookies, which we sell at Shs1000 each.”

Concentrated fruits

Sheila Naluwooza, a third year student, leads a team of 12 students to make concentrated fruits. They dry different fruits, including jackfruit, mangoes, and oranges.

Mak Peanut butter

 Using groundnuts, simsim, soya and small fish (mukene), a group of 10 Makerere University students led by Winfred Adong are making a unique peanut butter popularly known as Odii.

Adong, who is pursuing a Bachelor in Science in Human Nutrition, says: “After realising that the available Odii on market is just plain groundnuts and a few mixed with simsim, we decided to come up with this innovation, which is very healthy to all, especially babies.” 

Their peanut butter ingredients include plain groundnut, mixture of groundnut and simsim and the unique one contains groundnuts, simsim, soya and mukene. Adong says the peanut butter is safe from aflatoxins and saves people from getting cancerous diseases as they carefully handle their ingredients and also undergo rigorous testing.

Mak Ketchup

Mangoes are the only sweeteners which the Bio-engineering students, led by Esther Nakimuli and Catherine Bawaye, add in their ketchup, making it organic, sweet and long lasting.

Nakimuli says they are not investing any money in buying sugar, yet they produce well-spiced ketchup in two categories, namely chilly and plain.

Other products they make are Mak water, Mak crisps, and Mak Jam.

Mak Probiotic juice

These are mango juices made in plain and cocktail of mango-pineapple, and mango-passion among other mixes that are produced without any sugar added in them.

Joshua Rugwisa, the team leader, says these produce healthy drinks that are consumed by everyone without having any health challenges.

Challenges

Speaking to this publication separately, the more than 80 students raised challenges of limited markets, funding gaps and lack of enough time to balance between books and production.

Okole, the group leader of Tima cakes, says: “We now need to test and certify our products through the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), and get more funding to enable us expand production for the market outside the university.”

Management speak out

Dr Kigozi said the current pilot project was started with $5,000 (Shs19 million) funding from the Education Collaborative Association, a body that brings together like-minded universities in Africa, and are now looking at expanding it to the next level.

“We are now looking at creating a revolving fund, where a student is given Shs300,000. They develop a product and take it to the market. As they get profits, we pass it onto the next student. These students start-ups are nearly 20 and getting money to finance all of them may not be easy,” she said.

Dr Kigozi added that the students are taken through all the steps needed to commercialise their skills, including being certified by UNBS, and getting Tax Identification Number (TIN) from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).

“They are doing everything to  meet all standards because once you are out of the university premises, you are in government territory and have to meet all required standards. For example, for one to do agro-processing one has to know the basics. We [normally] got to their facility, find out what they are doing, how they are doing it and then we go through the remedial with them.”

Products made by students

1. Tima cakes made from Soya and wheat

2. Mak Avocado cake made from wheat, avocado and margarine

3. Mak Cookies from jackfruit, sugar, wheat

4. Mak Fruit Yoghurt from coffee beans, mangoes, among others

5. Concentrated fruits from jackfruit, mangoes, oranges

6. Mak Probiotic Juice from Mango, Pineapple, Passion and cocktails.

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