Consumer Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for Instant Cereal Products With Food-to-Food Fortification in Eldoret, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Maize is the major food staple in East and Southern Africa, where food-processing industries are emerging fast. New low-cost extrusion cookers allow small enterprises to enter the market for processed cereals, including instant, fortified, and flavored products. Objective: Assess consumers’ interest and preferences for the new products. Methods: Consumers (n = 220) in Eldoret, Kenya, were invited to evaluate 4 new cereal products: (1) sifted maize flour mixed with sorghum, (2) instant sifted mixed flour, (3) instant whole flour, and (4) instant whole flour fortified with natural ingredients and to compare them to conventional sifted maize flour, using 2 preparations: stiff porridge ( ugali) and soft porridge ( uji). These were followed by economic experiments to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the new products and traits. Results: For ugali, consumers preferred conventional sifted maize flour, while for uji, they appreciated the new products, especially sifted mixed flour (with sorghum) and instant whole mixed flour. Fortification with food-to-food sources was not appreciated, especially for ugali. Comparing WTP for the traits with their production cost showed that mixed, whole, and instant flours were economical, but not fortification. Maize/sorghum mixtures realized a benefit of 24% over conventional maize flour, whole meal 11%, and instant mixtures 5%. Conclusions: There is a potential market for improved cereal products in Kenya, but more for uji than for ugali, especially with instant, mixed, and whole flour. Acceptable and affordable products, fortified with other foods that are locally available, however, still need to be developed, especially for ugali.

What is food‐to‐food fortification? A working definition and framework for evaluation of efficiency and implementation of best practices

“…Concentration and drying, especially of edible substandard produce and by-products into shelf-stable plant fortificants, would expand fruit and vegetable processing enterprises and substantially contribute to a reduction in these losses. By-products such as pumpkin and okra leaves and pineapple and tomato peel are promising fortificants (Table 5), which would have smaller cost implications compared to the premium products (carrot and baobab powder) included in the calculations of De Groote et al (2020). In time, the expansion of plant food fortificant production should serve to bring down the cost of the fortificants and also generate a food ingredient value chain domestically.…”

“…Recent research in Kenya has shown that FtFF of an instant cereal porridge flour with 20% dried carrot and baobab fruit would currently increase the net cost of the product by approximately 28% on account of the higher costs of these ingredients (De Groote et al., 2020). However, this and related research in Senegal revealed that consumers are willing to pay a significant premium for these products fortified with fruits and vegetables, an additional 12% in Kenya and 4 to 9% in Senegal (De Groote et al., 2018, 2020), which would significantly mitigate the additional cost.…”

“…By‐products such as pumpkin and okra leaves and pineapple and tomato peel are promising fortificants (Table 5), which would have smaller cost implications compared to the premium products (carrot and baobab powder) included in the calculations of De Groote et al. (2020). In time, the expansion of plant food fortificant production should serve to bring down the cost of the fortificants and also generate a food ingredient value chain domestically.…”

Exploring Home-use Test to Assess Urban Consumers’ Acceptance and Likelihood to Purchase Naturally Fortified Instant Whole Meal Sorghum-maize Flour Blends in Eldoret, Kenya

“…However, there is still uncertainty about how to effectively carry out nutrient supplementation and how to best reach the vulnerable populations. Therefore, this calls for a possibility of food to food fortification of widely consumed traditional staples like maize and sorghum to improve the nutritional content and hence reduce postharvest losses rather than devising schemes to distribute supplements (De Groote et al, 2020). In particular, plant based fortificants from the food system can be added to improve the nutritional content of traditional staple crops.…”

“…This paper attempts to account for product experience using HUT, where consumers tried the product for a few days at home using affective tests. The affective test seeks to assess the personal response (preference or acceptance) to a new product by a sample of representative consumers (De Groote et al, 2020). Two different products: ugali, a stiff porridge and uji, a thin porridge, products that are the most commonly prepared as staples by most consumers in Kenya were evaluated.…”