It’s a new year everyone.
Mine is to thank you for subscribing to this blog/ newsletter.
The goal of this publication is to push us towards circularity and sustainability as we engage in our daily lives.
As we start the year, I’d like to embark on another sustainablity expedition by exploring agroprocessing.
What comes to mind when this catch word is mentioned?
AGROPROCESSING
Processing of food on not a new thing.
Our forefathers preserved meat and foam through smoking and salting techniques.
Milk was preserved by converting it into yogurt.
Vegetables were boiled or steamed to allow them a longer shelf life.
However, the term ‘processed foods’ has taken a whole different meaning today.
Some of the food we see on supermarket shelves are actually ultra-processed, meaning that artificial additives such as sugar, salt, food coloring and fragrances might have been added to lure the consumer.
Unfortunately, agricultural produce hasn’t been let off the hook of ultra-processed foods.
Old and safe methods of preserving food like smoking have been substituted with artificial chemicals like sodium benzoate.
Other chemicals like sodium nitrite are widely used to preserve meats while unscrupulous traders have been known to use formalin to make milk last for ages.
Formalin (or formaldehyde) exposure over a long time has been linked to cancer development.
Now, let me be clear.
The agroprocessing I intend to talk about is worlds apart from these chemical malpractices that put people’s health at risk.
Instead it has to do with the use of everyday fruits and vegetables to create value without wastage.
So let’s dive into one such fruit.
AVOCADOS
Whether we blend it into a thick smoothie, cut it and mic it with our favourite stew, convert it into that sumptuous guacamole or just enjoy it as it is, the avocado is in many ways a super food.
Being a low sugar fruit, the avocado is packed with healthy fats, vitamins and minerals that boosts our health.
And one way of capturing the value out ofbthi fruit is by eating it.
The other way is through extracting these oils that make it super healthy to eat.
But why do we bother with extracting avocado oil when we could just eat it?
AVOCADO OIL
Interestingly, avocado oil is used in beauty parlours to make women’s hair beautiful.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Research shows that among the many cooking oils available out there, avocado oil ranks among the best.
Infact, it aces olive oil simply because it have a very high smoke point (270°C), meaning thay it is safe for us in deep frying.
Avocado oil is also rich in good unsaturated fats and has a low concentration of linoleic acid which causes gut inflammation.
It’s extracted by multinationals using centrifugation method.
However cold press methods are best to preserve nutrient levels which also makes the oil fetch a very good market price.
This is done through drying the pulp in the shade for several days then pressing the oily pulp to recover the oil.
The pulp cake could then be used to make livestock feeds or composted.
But that’s not the end of the avocado fruit story.
THE SEED
Avocado seeds are known to have a considerable level of antioxidants.
These are minerals that help fight environmental poisons that are all around us.
The seeds could be dried, powdered and packed as a herbal tea supplement after mixing it with some herbs.
Enjoying a hot cup of herbal avocado seed tea is one sure way of improving one’s health over the longhaul.
Besides tea, avocado seeds could also be converted into powder and used as an exfoliating agent in soap making.
Exfoliants are particles the size of sand added to a soap to help scrap off dead skin during a bath and the avocado seed with its antioxidant properties can do a good job in this regard.
The seed could also be used to make natural red pigment.
The pulp?✅️
The seed?✅️
Which leaves us with the peels.
What can we do with avocado peels?
Besides composting, when peels are dried and pulverised, they could also be used as exfoliants in soaps.
But also, there’s considerable oil quantities in some avocado peels which could also be extracted through hot or cold pressing.
IN CONCLUSION
In other words, we could pick an avocado fruit and develop 3 or more products from it: oil, soap, pigment, tea, compost etc.
This is what we talk about in circular agroporcessing.
Integrating circularity in afroprocessing helps reduce or cut off waste, creates new income streams and generates employment.
This is the discussion I’d like us to have over the next few weeks.
We’ve started with avocados.
Which other fruit or veg might you desire we discuss?
Cheers.
