Skip links

Convergence Project - Chowberries

The ChowBerry. An African superfood made by Nigerian food entrepreneur Oscar Ekponimo, in collaboration with Harvard & MIT scientists and technologists, transforming African staples into valuable highly nutritious foods made by Africans, consumed by Africans, and accessible across economic strata.

A CASE FOR FOOD JUSTICE

Food staples get taken out of Africa processed abroad and resold at a premium. Communities should be empowered to create or “NUTRIFY” their locally available staples.
The broad goal is to deliver and merge advance science with local knowledge to improve health outcomes through the development of nutrient dense foods developed locally leveraging breakthrough discoveries from MIT and Harvard University.

The Chowberries nutrition bites incorporates two pioneering food technologies

  1. Heat stable low-pH sensitive micro-nutrient encapsulation technology by MIT Professor Robert Langer.
  2. Algae based edible packaging technology that extends the shelf life of fruits, staples or vegetables by Harvard Professor David Edwards which now exists as Incredible Foods.
With the technology donated charitably to the project, Chowberry will work with farming communities and take local staples such as Cassava, Rice and other starch-filled food from farmers, Apply the pioneering discovery to create highly nutritious food bites, with the end goal being the set-up of a production facility that empowers local communities and create nutrition bites that they can sell commercially and sustain themselves economically