A group of nutritionists from the University of Eldoret (UOE) have come up with special flour that enables one to prepare ugali in about one minute.
The flour, dubbed Instant Ugali Pap, enables one to prepare the meal without much hustle. With only hot water in a flask and a packet of the special flour, you can quickly make ugali at your place of work.
The flour is prepared through an intense process and is also fortified with fruits and vegetables, making it more nutritious than the normal flour.
The multipurpose flour has already received the approval of Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and retails for around Sh200 per kg, according to Prof. Violet Mugalavai, one of the nutritionists behind the new product.
“Anyone who loves their ugali or porridge can now indulge whenever they feel like. With some hot water in a flask or a dispenser, one can achieve a drink of nutritious Uji or cook ugali instantly using the multipurpose fortified flour,” said Mugalavai during an interview with NTV.
Its ingredients include Maize, sorghum, pumpkin, bananas, mangoes, cassava, amaranth grains, millet, oranges, sweet potato, rice, carrot, baobab, chickpeas, and cowpeas.
Once the above farm products are dried, they are milled then taken to an extruder that exposes the flour to temperatures of up to 140 Degree Celsius to cook it.
“After cooking, the product is taken to the drier where it stays for about three hours. After this, we mill it again to form Instant Ugali Pap flour,” Mugalavai said.
The extruding machine was donated to the institution by US-based Purdue University.
To cook your ugali, one only needs hot water where you put the flour and stir it for about one minute. The amount of flour used depends on how thick you want your ugali or porridge to be.
