Powdered eggs! - another feat by CSIR scientists
One of the values of science is that it deals with ignorance, making our knowledge of yesterday outdated and valueless by the new insights of today.
From scientific knowledge, technology creates products that solve problems and improve human life.
People or societies that refuse or fail to understand this role of science or are unable to take advantage of technological advancement will forever remain backward.
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It is against this backdrop that I take pride and pleasure in announcing a “small” technological breakthrough achieved by the Animal Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
This institute has discovered a way of
Instead of shell-egg that is broken and either fried or boiled, Ghanaians will, in the very near future, buy powdered eggs in either sachet, cans or some other forms of packaging.
Of course, the technology has existed elsewhere for some time now, so this innovation may sound like re-engineering, but as the Director of the institute, Professor Emmanuel Kwadwo Adu, pointed out in a phone chat this week, “in most laboratories and factories around the globe, what is taking place is re-engineering”.
To see how man has benefited from re-engineering, I Googled to find out the shape of the first car - the first steam-powered automobile by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (1769) through François Isaac de Rivaz’s four-stroke petrol internal combustion engine, Karl Benz (1885) and the Ford Model T (1913) to the Mercedes Benz, Japanese Toyota and Korean KIA of today.
This is where scientists at Ghana’s Animal Research Institute are coming from: making a technology started by an earlier generation elsewhere available to us in this nation today.
With a
I won’t go into detail about what goes on in their laboratories; suffice it to say that the shell-egg is broken,
The result is
From there, they proceed to the next stage. They have been able to separate the albumen from the yolk. What Ghanaians will soon find on the shelves of our shopping malls is
Each of them will come with the relevant instructions for use, indicating how many teaspoonfuls will be equivalent to one boiled or fried egg.
From their experiments so far, however, one sachet of
Why am I excited about
First, farmers complain that 10
Third, while shell-egg will not last beyond one month,
For the economy as a whole, however, the value of the powdered egg is in its industrial application. Eggs are used in the manufacture of custard and mayonnaise, ice cream and chocolates. In the confectionary industry, eggs are used in the manufacture of beverage such as Milo and Ovaltine.
The cosmetics industry uses eggs for hair and skin-care products.
Medicinally, since the albumen has
I am not done
Another by-product of the Ghanaian research is the scientist’s ability to isolate and extract egg oil, a product known as a carrier oil in many creams, ointments
For each of these uses by industry, eggs need to be produced in large quantities, but for how long can we continue to transport shell-eggs in their bulk and perishable nature? The answer is in
The change is happening in the laboratories of the Animal Research Institute, a revolution began by Prof. Adu, with
Talking about the availability of local technologies and as the nation contemplates building more schools for the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme, I propose a consideration for
It is 30
Ordinary Portland cement is easily attacked by acids,
To see
Talk about price. In Kumasi, for example, while a
Ayekoo, CSIR @ 60