A Nigerian-Swedish initiative on development of novel protein food products

Purpose and goal

The long term goal to create good relationships and cooperation with Nigeria has been realized in this project, and the hope is to develop and deepen them in the future. The project has gained good insight into the activities taking place in Nigeria on protein-rich foods, and experienced the interest in having collaborative projects when creating innovative new food products to a wider market. Initial attempts to develop prototypes with combinations of crops from Sweden and Nigeria have shown promising results, the work will continue after the project.

Expected results and effects

The project has resulted in increased contacts and networks in Nigeria. The opportunities to continue and further develop cooperation between the two countries, Sweden and Nigeria, and create joint projects have been investigated and the expectation is that this will produce effects in the future. The interest in collaboration from Nigeria has exceeded the expectations, and we are hopeful to increase the interest from Swedish players who see the opportunities in Nigeria. The prototypes developed have shown good results, further work will hopefully be beneficial in the future.

Planned approach and implementation

In the project experimental study has been performed to investigate the possibility of developing protein-rich foods from crops of Nigerian origin in combination with Swedish ingredients. A major focus in the project has been to create new contacts and networks, which included a trip to Nigeria by the project participants. In line of this work, the project also had a visit from a Nigerian delegation to Sweden. In addition, opportunities for continued cooperation have been considered. The project ended with an open seminar where participants fromvarious organizations participated.