Dried fruit snack bar delivers accessible nutrition

Major fruit crops such as papaya and mango succumb easily to spoilage. As a result, large volumes of these fruits are lost each year, despite their status as vitamin-rich superfoods that pack a nutritional punch.

This was the inspiration for developing a concept that aims to reduce loss and provide easily accessible nutrition to consumers in low-income households.

The recipe combines papaya pulp with milk and whey-based ingredients, raising the protein content to more than 17% and enhancing sweetness with no added sugar. We recommend that the bar is then baked to ensure high food safety throughout shelf life.

Pilot trials have shown that the concept is suitable for local production in major papaya-producing countries such as Ethiopia. The concept can also be adapted to other fast-ripening fruits where high loss is an issue.

Read more about the project to build a papaya waste value chain.