Kenkey production, vending and consumption practices in Ghana

Abstract

A survey was conducted to study production, vending, and consumption of kenkey, a sour dumpling in Ghana. Information was obtained on the socio-cultural profile of the actors, processing technologies, practices which adversely affected product quality, shelf life, and quality attributes important to consumers. Kenkey production and retailing was the domain of women, and carried out mainly as a family business in home-based operations. Three types of kenkey were encountered: Ga-, Fanti-, and nsiho-kenkey. Production was dominated by the Ga and Fanti socio-cultural groups but consumption cut across all socio-cultural groups. The majority of producers processed 10–100 kg of maize per week but frequency of production varied from 1 to 10 times in a week. Unit operations in kenkey production were labour intensive and manually carried out apart from milling. The texture of kenkey was more critical to most consumers than taste and depended on a procedure called aflatalization yielding a product with a semi-sticky, elastic consistency