Tell us about yourself and what you do at General Mills

My name is Gabby Kouneva and I am a team leader in the General Mills pet department at our research and development center. I currently live in Minnesota with my three cats and I love to travel, hike, read a good mystery novel, and watch Formula One racing!

What was your main motivation for volunteering with PFS?

I wanted to help make a more direct impact on smaller companies outside of General Mills.

What has been your most interesting volunteering/project experience?

I got to work with a company in Tanzania that was trying to eliminate yeast and mold in their yogurt. It was very interesting for me since I have never worked with dairy and I learned a lot about making yogurt from the other volunteers and our client.

What skills have you developed as a client lead?

I have picked up some really good project management skills - leading teams across multiple time zones and keeping everyone on track and the project moving forward. I have definitely applied these learnings to my job as I lead through big projects and keep the momentum going.

What's your favorite part of volunteering?

Meeting, getting to know, and  working with many different people around the globe.

What would you say to any colleague thinking about volunteering with PFS?

Sign up and volunteer! Sign up for something that you have passion around so it does not feel like work, or sign up as a client lead for something that you are unfamiliar with so you can broaden your knowledge!

In the world of food production, turning surplus ingredients into new, delicious products is a challenge that Co-op Ca Coprodigo,(“Coprodigo”) has enthusiastically embraced. The company, based in Côte d’Ivoire currently makes a diverse range of cashew-based products, including flavored cashews such as pepper, salt, and chocolate-coated, as well as creamy cashew butter. 

They reached out to PFS for insight on how to transform surplus crushed cashews from their production process into innovative, tasty snacks.  PFS connected them with Samantha Klein-Vidal, a research and quality technician at Ardent Mills. 

Samantha and her co-volunteer from Cargill brainstormed and shared an impressive array of 21 recipes. From meringue toffees to cashew nut brittles, their brainstorming sessions produced culinary delights. From the numerous recipes, the Coprodigo team selected four recipes that stood out: a sugar and honey bar, chocolate candy with cashew, cashew cookie, and cashew clusters.

Coprodigo was very responsive and rapidly went into the testing phase for their upcoming star, Cashew Clusters. This exciting new product is a testament to the power of collaborative brainstorming and innovation. From discussions on the project call, the company has also explored additional avenues of processing cashew, such as cashew nut oil, roasted and unroasted cashew flour (potentially for mixing with baby food), cashew nut brittles, biscuits and coated cashew snacks.

Anne Tolou, marketing manager at Coprodigo, expressed her gratitude for the creative recommendations provided by Samantha and the volunteer team, emphasizing the company's commitment to staying fresh and expanding in the market. "These recipes will help us get there," she said with optimism.

Coprodigo's mission to add value to their surplus crushed cashews is an inspiring example of sustainability and innovation in the food industry. Samantha looks forward to the success of Coprodigo’s introduction of these new creations to new markets. 

“There will never be the right time unless you make the time right. Dive in. It’s never too late to help!”

That’s the message Andrew Wilcox, logistics director at Ardent Mills would share with any of his colleagues who are considering volunteering with PFS. Andrew himself first heard of PFS about six years ago but hesitated about getting involved due to other work commitments. In the first thirteen years of his career, he worked in operations, before moving into supply chain in 2020. Motivated by the idea of sharing his expertise to positively impact the food system in other countries, Andrew finally decided that there would really never be a “perfect time” and committed to volunteer with PFS.

For about a year, Andrew has volunteered as a Client Lead (project manager) with Winnie's Pure Health, a female-led food processor in Kenya that strives to provide high quality, healthy food products like baby porridge flours, maize, millet and wheat flour to its consumers across East Africa. As the Client Lead, Andrew supervised the project teams, managed project timelines, and acted as a point of contact for the volunteer teams and client. Together, they have supported Winnie's Pure Health on several projects including a packaging solutions project for blended flour, food safety and quality assessment of flour and an alternative ingredients project.

“It has been a new experience for me as the topics and projects we worked on with Winnie’s largely fell outside of my areas of expertise. However, this allowed me to hone my skills in asking insightful questions to create clarity in these areas.” Andrew’s favorite part of serving as a Client Lead has been interacting with a different culture while trying to help them succeed with performance and innovation. Andrew also noted that the Client Lead role has refined his ability to coordinate and steer discussions and reinforced the importance of setting clear objectives. “l have learned a lot, not only about our client, but about myself during this period of volunteering. It has definitely been rewarding”.

Fortifying foods that are already commonly consumed is of the most effective ways of tackling the micronutrient deficiencies that affect millions of people on the African continent.

PFS is grateful to four of our Africa-based volunteers from Buhler AG and dsm-firmenich who provided fortification training to members of the Ethiopian Millers Association and Edible Oil Association to support them to meet the National Fortification Standard. This was done in collaboration with the Ethiopia Food and Drug Authority and Standards Agency.

Over the course of three(3) days, Oreofe Odunsi, Rishan Elmneh and Kidist Tadesse, of dsm-firmenich and Biniam Tiezazu, from Buhler AG trained 32 millers and 29 edible oil companies on topics including microdoser installation and calibration, formulation and ratio adjustment of micronutrients to flour/oil and quality control testing and methodologies.

“Eshandy” is the trendiest beverage in Uganda! It’s a refreshing juice made from ripened bananas with no artificial sugars, flavor or color added. It is produced by Forest Fruit Foods (FFF) Ltd, an agro-processing company established in 2003.

Uganda is a leading grower of bananas in Africa. However, most of the produce is either exported or consumed in its natural state. Forest Fruit Foods is one of the few players that processes bananas on a commercial scale, with operations along the entire value chain. They do this because effective commercialization requires greater control on the value chain activities, as banana juice is a highly perishable product.

“Eshandy” is made from a variety of bananas that are native to regions in Uganda and Tanzania. Because of that there are no existing global resources or technical support available for processing these varieties. In addition, when packaged the banana juice does not have a uniform color, with bottles from even the same batch having different shades, which is quite undesirable for consumers. This is why FFF reached out to PFS to learn how they could stabilize their product.

With a background in microbiology and more than two decades of experience in food and beverage manufacturing, J.M Smuckers’ Sarah Mothershead was a perfect fit to help Forest Fruit Foods. Sarah had a number of hypotheses as to what caused the browning but she needed to prove them before she could propose solutions.

“The team, which included talented individuals from Forest Fruit Food Ltd., Partners in Food Solutions, and other volunteer members, was able to work together to understand the banana juice manufacturing and bottling process to develop test plans aimed at reducing the browning that was occurring in the shelf stable banana juice product over the shelf life in a warm environment. We were able to show that using antioxidants at differing points and in varying concentrations within the process serves to effectively minimize browning reactions. We were also able to provide support for the ideas of the FFF interns for further testing protocols and to bolster the food safety attributes of the product.”

Kano Kekurutso of Forest Fruit Foods, said “The team has been excellent with their commitment and level of organization, follow ups and practicality. They have been very realistic and accommodating.”Kano considers that the partnership with PFS is very instrumental, not only with the technical issues, but also the commercial aspects.“Through this project, we have more systematic and clearer technical controls and protocols. What some may consider a ‘small’ intervention will lead to huge results for Forest Fruit Foods. Resolving this browning will increase the shelf life of our product which will in turn increase the volumes of the bananas we purchase from farmers, and will lead to market expansion. We look forward to taking these trials from the lab to commercialization.”