By Valeria Mendoza

Meet Abdiaziz Beinah, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Nairobi. Born to a family of pastoralists in northeastern Kenya, Beinah earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food science and technology from the University of Nairobi. His doctoral research with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety is producing new insights into the gender dynamics and food safety challenges in Kenyan poultry production.

Tell us more about your current food safety research with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety.

My research is centered in Kiambu County, Kenya, which is adjacent to Nairobi’s metropolitan areas. The overall project focuses on evaluating the food safety risks posed by pathogens, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. My role in the project is to conduct a gender analysis to assess men’s and women’s different roles in poultry farming to better understand our target audiences for food safety training. We have talked with farmers to understand their food safety awareness, knowledge, and attitudes, and then we conducted a gender analysis to assess who does what, who owns the farms, who makes decisions, and who controls the income.

What have you learned so far about gender dynamics in poultry farming?

The beauty of poultry farming in Kiambu County is that women can run the business while they are also taking care of the family and the children, enabling them to contribute to the financial well-being of the family. I remember meeting an older woman who has had a very good poultry farm since 1974. She helped her two sons become medical doctors, paying their school fees through poultry farming. That makes me feel proud, because poultry farming is helping a lot of people achieve their dreams.

It has been fascinating to find that in Kiambu County, where the education levels of farmers may be higher than in other counties in Kenya, the majority of the poultry farms are owned by women, which challenges traditional gender roles in agriculture. Women decide when to purchase chicks, they decide when to sell, and they also decide what to do with that income. We were not expecting that scenario — the power they have to control their poultry business ventures in Kiambu County was amazing. This makes women a key target audience for food safety knowledge or training, as their central role in managing poultry farms positions them to directly influence the health and safety of the food supply chain within their communities.

But even though the majority of the poultry products are produced by women and youth, the control of the market remains male-dominated. For example, men often control the distribution networks such as transporters, traders, and brokers, which gives them greater influence over pricing and market access. Women and youth, on the other hand, frequently lack access to critical resources such as capital for business expansion, land for scaling up operations, and essential market information that could help them negotiate better prices or find new buyers. This disparity limits their ability to fully benefit from their production efforts and grow their enterprises

Based on your field experience, what are the main challenges to poultry food safety in Kenya?

The lack of advanced technology and adherence to best practices in the slaughtering process are significant challenges to productivity and food safety. In Kiambu County, despite its proximity to Nairobi and higher educational levels among farmers, there are considerable gaps in standard slaughtering practices and cold chain management, including during transport. These gaps potentially increase food safety risks, highlighting the need for better regulatory enforcement and farmer education. I think it’s particularly important for projects like ours to help farmers understand the food safety risks in poultry. In our study, almost 82% of the farmers did not know about Salmonella and Campylobacter as foodborne pathogens. You cannot expect someone who doesn’t even know about Salmonella to take precautions to avoid contamination.

How do you hope to impact the agricultural sector through your work?

Developing risk-based approaches to improve food safety, especially in smallholder farming systems, is something I believe can significantly reduce foodborne diseases. By providing training and building local capacity, particularly among women and youth farmers, we can enhance agricultural productivity and food safety while also empowering these communities economically. I believe that utilizing scientific data from the project to inform agricultural policies and practices can lead to more effective and efficient interventions, improving food security and economic outcomes.

Who are the project partners?

The key project partners are co-lead PIs Dr. Catherine Kunyanga (University of Nairobi) and Dr. Robert Onsare (Kenya Medical Research Institute). Their two research teams are working together to determine the baseline microbial contamination rates of Salmonella enterica and Campylobacter food pathogens throughout the broiler, indigenous, and spent layer chicken value chains. The teams will also survey chicken value chain actors about their food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Both institutions will build capacity by training graduate students and engaging local partners in the project. Additionally, the University of Nairobi team has conducted a poultry production gender analysis and will train local producers about food safe slaughter practices to reduce the transmission of pathogens throughout the poultry value chain.

Valeria Mendoza is a program assistant with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety and is pursuing a degree in Food Science at Purdue University.

By Meeri Kim

Growing up as a young girl in Lagos, Nigeria, Nkem Torimiro had a dream of becoming a doctor to save lives. But she hit a bump in the road after high school, when the University of Port-Harcourt offered her admission to study botany instead of medicine. She accepted the offer, but with her heart still set on a career in human health.

“It was during my final year while working on a project on isolating bacteria from a diseased plant that I got fascinated by the world of microorganisms,” says Torimiro. “Subsequently, I furthered my graduate studies in microbiology, and it has been a worthwhile experience ever since.”

She realized that expertise in microbiology — and specifically, infectious diseases — could lead to a career that would help fulfill her childhood aspirations. After graduating with a B.Sc. in Botany, Torimiro received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology as well as her Master’s in Public Health (MPH) from Obafemi Awolowo University. Now, as Acting Head of the Department of Microbiology at Obafemi Awolowo University, Torimiro specializes in medical and public health microbiology, detection of infectious agents, and antimicrobial resistance.

She was awarded three patents by the Federal Republic of Nigeria for research innovations that leverage nanotechnology to solve pressing issues in medicine and agriculture. One of her inventions is a nanoparticle-based biosensor that can detect the onset of post-harvest spoilage in fruit before it becomes evident to the naked eye. For example, fruit handlers cannot see the signs of early-stage deterioration that will lead to their produce exhibiting visual symptoms of quality loss during storage — by which point they become unsellable.  The biosensor uses a solution of Bacillus subtilis-synthesized silver nanoparticles, which are highly sensitive to the gas metabolite released by many types of fruit when undergoing deterioration. Her invention is a simple and environmentally safe way to ensure that timely actions can be taken before spoilage occurs.

“Food insecurity is on the high side in Nigeria and most sub-Saharan African countries, not just because food production levels are low, but because more of what is being produced is usually lost to post-harvest spoilage,” she says. “Hence, it is highly important not only to grow more food but also to save what is grown.”

Currently, her laboratory is looking for means of addressing antibiotic resistance in infectious pathogenic bacteria. She is also passionate about global health security and advocates for the safe, secure, and responsible use of biological agents. Torimiro holds professional certifications in Biorisk Management, Biosecurity, and Biological Waste Management from the International Federation of Biosafety Associations (IFBA).

As part of a research team based in the United States and Nigeria, Torimiro is also working on a project funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety to mitigate and prevent household foodborne illnesses in Nigeria.

“Africa has the highest prevalence of foodborne disease globally, with 2,420 cases per 1 million people occurring every year,” she says. “But most of the research on food safety doesn’t look at households, which is where foodborne disease often originates from, especially in Nigeria and other resource-poor settings.”

She serves as the microbiologist of the interdisciplinary team, which is co-led by Andrea Bersamin, professor of biology and wildlife at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Bolanle Otegbayo, professor of food science and technology at Bowen University. Her role focuses on environmental sanitation assessments, such as isolating and identifying pathogens from food contact surfaces and non-food contact surfaces in households.

The project, targeting Nigerian families with children under five years old, aims to understand what factors and conditions make households vulnerable to food safety risks. Torimiro and her colleagues are now in the final stages of the project, which involves a participatory approach and cross-sector collaboration with key stakeholders, including mothers, to prioritize programs and policy actions to improve household food safety.

From her perspective, the biggest challenge in food safety is that people don’t take it seriously enough as a major public health problem. Even the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — which tackle global issues like hunger, clean water, and climate change — do not include food safety, despite the estimated 420,000 deaths from foodborne illness every year.

“Most times people are reactive, and when it comes to food safety, we don’t prepare ahead. Only when there is an undesirable event, that’s when people mobilize to look for solutions,” Torimiro says. “But planning efforts should be intensified towards prevention, and to do that we need to start addressing food safety from farm to fork.”

Meeri Kim is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The Innovation Lab is one of a network of 20 such labs led by U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

As the oldest of four children, Catherine Nkirote Kunyanga felt driven at a young age to excel in school as a way to pull her family out of poverty. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, her father worked in the private sector for years but then lost his job, while her mother stayed home. After primary school, Kunyanga moved to rural Meru County to attend high school, where she ranked top of the class for every subject and was the first female student to ever earn grade A in the school.

“Our parents were very keen on us going to school, and being a firstborn, I knew that education was the only way I could help my family,” she said. Kunyanga returned to the capital after being accepted to the prestigious University of Nairobi, where she completed her bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in food science and technology.

Today, having climbed the academic ranks to become one of the preeminent female scientists in Kenya, she goes back to Meru County to mentor students at her alma mater — young girls, in particular — to show them what is possible. Upon receiving her Ph.D., Kunyanga was offered a position as a lecturer at the University of Nairobi. She currently serves as associate professor in the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Technology and associate dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Nairobi.

With her first year’s salary, she was able to build a house for her parents in their village. “I owe my success to them. If they had not pushed me, I would not be where I am,” she said.

Her research focuses on highlighting the health characteristics of Indigenous food crops, linking them to better nutrition and health outcomes in vulnerable populations in Kenya. Recent studies have investigated the value of supplementing cultured milk products with baobab fruit pulp, perceptions of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and antibiotics in livestock production, and formulation of a ready-to-eat snack bar made with sorghum, sesame and baobab fruit pulp powder.

She is also passionate about implementing systems-based, risk-informed approaches to food safety in her home country, where food and nutrition insecurity is still a major challenge. Severe droughts throughout the last decade have led to more than double the number of food-insecure people in Kenya, from 1.3 million to 2.7 million.

“For many years, our focus has been just food security, without people realizing you cannot be food-secure if the food you are eating is not safe,” said Kunyanga. “People never cared about what food they ate, what it contains, whether it’s safe or not. As the food security coordinator, I have championed a number of projects toward zero hunger and zero poverty in Kenya, in collaboration with both local and international partner institutions. As a university also, we had a number of interventions to sensitize people around food safety.”

Her laboratory is working on several projects looking at foodborne pathogens, heavy metals and pesticides. With Dr. Robert Onsare, senior research scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kunyanga is leading a project funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety to improve food security and nutrition in Kenya by targeting the poultry value chain. Poultry is an important dietary component for poor and middle-class Kenyan households, but the transmission of pathogenic Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria presents a significant risk of foodborne disease. Unlike larger livestock like cattle, sheep and goats, handled mostly by men, poultry is often produced and processed in informal settings by women and youth.

“We are looking at risk-based approaches in control of Salmonella and Campylobacter in the poultry value chain in Kiambu County, which supplies to Nairobi,” she said. “I’m hoping the intervention that we plan to do will help these women and youth run a profitable business through safe production and sale of high-quality poultry meat and meat products.”

The research focuses on women and youth who, due to their direct involvement in poultry handling and production, are likely at higher risk of exposure to foodborne pathogens. Despite being the owners and caretakers of chickens, women may not have the power to make decisions about money or access to resources to increase food safety.

Next, the researchers plan to empower youth and women through educational workshops and skill trainings that build food microbiology expertise. The project sponsors two master’s students and one Ph.D. student who assist Kunyanga with surveying households and farms, analyzing data and strategizing ways to increase engagement.

Outside of her academic pursuits, Kunyanga is proud to be a mother to two daughters. Her first was born three days after taking a final exam in the fourth year of her bachelor’s degree. “And during my master’s, I had my second daughter — so, two daughters, two degrees” she laughs.

In the future, she hopes to lead a regulatory agency or hold another such role in government in order to make decisions that directly affect the adoption of interventions and technologies to address food safety and other agricultural issues. “I’m not tired,” Kunyanga emphasizes. “As a country, we are still struggling with food insecurity, so I hope to contribute in a big way during my lifetime.”

Meeri Kim is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL). The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

Upon returning to Cambodia in 2016 after four years abroad, Navin Sreng found herself at an unexpected crossroads in her scientific career. She had a newly minted Ph.D. in biology in hand from France’s prestigious Paul Sabatier University, where she attended on full scholarship, and had her sights set on a faculty position back home.

“The scholarship had a requirement that when I finish my studies, I come back to help my home country,” says Sreng, who grew up in Phnom Penh to a middle-class family. “And when I was in France, I was close to a Cambodian lecturer who advised me that I should work for a university.”

But, the only employment the university could offer at the time was a part-time teaching position — in fact, the exact same one she had before leaving for France. Despite being overqualified, Sreng took the job, assuming the school would find a more suitable position for her soon enough. She waited for months, hoping the situation would change.

When the promotion never came, Sreng decided to leave academic research for the private sector. She took a chance by applying to the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, part of the famed Pasteur Institute’s international network of health centers. Institut Pasteur du Cambodge operates under the auspices of both the Cambodian Ministry of Health and the Institut Pasteur. Her prior work on type 2 diabetes didn’t quite overlap with the institute’s focus on infectious diseases, but after a brief internship in bacteriology, she secured a job as a staff scientist in 2017.

Today, Sreng serves as the head of the Laboratory of Environment and Food Safety (LEFS) at the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge. The mission of LEFS is to assist food operators across the food system to detect, control and prevent foodborne illnesses and to provide quality and healthy foods. The laboratory performs a wide range of analyses, including food microbiology testing, microbiology and chemical testing for different types of water, air contamination testing, and surface contact testing.

“My task is to manage the laboratory and push us in the right direction to reach a particular vision,” she says. “Last year, we became accredited by the International Accreditation Service as proof of the technical competence and the commitment to continuous improvement of quality service of the laboratory and its staff.”

Sreng is also involved with LEFS’ research projects, including one funded by the FSIL. The lab is one of 20 such labs in a network under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID. The FSIL project, titled “Reducing Foodborne Pathogen Contamination of Vegetables in Cambodia: Innovative Research, Targeted Interventions, and Impactful, Cambodian-led Engagement,” is targeting food safety gaps in the production, distribution and sale of vegetables in Cambodia.

“The purpose of the project is to investigate the contamination rate of bacteria — especially E. coli and Salmonella — in fresh vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers,” Sreng says. “We want to see where exactly the contamination takes place, from farm to market.”

In recent years, both the Cambodian government and international development organizations have taken steps to reduce malnutrition by implementing policies and programs, including those designed to increase local production and consumption of vegetables. However, produce must be protected from cross-contamination with pathogens during all stages — production, processing, transport, sale and meal preparation — to lower the risk of foodborne illness.

The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers from both the United States and Cambodia. Sreng collaborates with lead researchers Jessie Vipham of Kansas State University and Paul Ebner of Purdue University, as well as colleagues based in her home country at the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition, Royal University of Agriculture, Institute of Technology Cambodia, and the World Vegetable Center.

The researchers collected samples of different vegetables from farms, distribution centers, wholesale markets and retail markets in two provinces: Battambang and Siem Reap. Sreng and her colleagues at LEFS then analyzed the Siem Reap samples to identify the critical control points for foodborne illness. Next, they plan to evaluate new and existing interventions to reduce microbial contamination at these critical control points in the vegetable value chain.

Sreng hopes that the FSIL project will accelerate the adoption of food safety in Cambodia and promote greater awareness of food safety risks among stakeholders such as farmers, produce collectors, market vendors and consumers. And even though she ended up in the private sector and not academia, Sreng wholeheartedly believes she landed in the right place.

“In the food safety training that I do, I can share all the knowledge that I have with people and alert them to the problem of foodborne illness,” says Sreng. “I think this could help make a difference — maybe not to the whole country, but at least to the people who I meet.”

Meeri Kim is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The Innovation Lab is one of a network of 20 such labs led by U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

By Valeria Mendoza

Meet Diamilatou Kane, a second-year Purdue University Ph.D. student in agricultural economics whose interests lie at the intersection of economics, food safety, and food security in developing countries. Born and raised in Senegal, Diamilatou earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Mount Holyoke College, worked at the World Bank as a Junior Professional Associate, completed a Master of Science in Development Economics at the University of Göttingen, and interned at IPAR, a think tank in Senegal. With support from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety, Diamilatou has started a research project to understand Senegalese urban consumers’ preferences for different types of milk. We talked with Diamilatou to learn more about food safety risks in Senegalese dairies, her vision for creating change, and why she chose Purdue for graduate study in agricultural economics.

As an agricultural economist, what food safety research will you be doing in Senegal?

Consumers are often distanced from the processes involved in producing the food they purchase. This is particularly the case for dairy products, where delicate steps are needed because of the perishability of milk. In the context of underdeveloped countries like Senegal, where cold chain infrastructures are lacking and informal markets dominate, I have observed that the urban dairy market was flooded with traditionally processed milk products by local vendors, often lacking in safety standards. Also, given that Senegal relies heavily on imports for over half of its milk consumption, it became imperative for me to understand how Senegalese consumers perceive and value the milk they consume. My work will include assessing consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price for milk products produced with safer practices, and also their willingness to pay a premium for local milk as opposed to imported milk. My goal is to determine how urban dairy consumers value milk safety and perceive milk products made from locally-sourced milk versus imported milk powder.

From your experience with the World Bank and development-related research, what do you see as the biggest challenges for traditional food systems in Africa?

A major challenge with agriculture in rural Africa, and rural Senegal in particular, is that it’s still lacking in technological development. Obviously, that impacts productivity, yields, and livelihoods. Part of the reason is that there are so many smallholder farmers, and more than 60% of the population in Africa works in agriculture. People have tried to implement Green Revolution approaches in Africa, but it hasn’t worked. They have tried to invest in research and development, but it hasn’t worked either. This is perhaps due in part to farmers not being willing and able to adopt those technologies, but there is also not enough synergy among policy-makers, researchers, and the scientific world. I would say in Africa, the biggest problem is developing that synergy to make good policies that would positively impact the agricultural sector.

Why did you choose to study at Purdue?

My passion for development was fueled by my previous field experiences in developing countries. I chose to specialize in agricultural economics because, in sub-Saharan Africa, as previously mentioned, more than 60% of the population are smallholder farmers, and agriculture contributes about 35% to Africa’s GDP, which is substantial. Purdue’s top-five ranking in agricultural economics and the chance to work with my now advisor, Dr. Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, a respected figure in the field, made it my clear choice. Another pivotal moment in my decision-making was a meeting with Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, during my time at the World Bank. He, being both an agricultural economist and a Purdue graduate, encouraged me to apply to Purdue. His encouragement solidified Purdue as a top choice for Ph.D. programs. Now, I’m excited to conduct research in Senegal as part of my academic journey.

What is unique about Purdue’s graduate program in agricultural economics?

In many U.S. Ph.D. programs, it’s customary to complete two years of coursework before immersing oneself in the dissertation phase. However, Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics distinguishes itself by actively promoting a continuous engagement with research. This includes activities such as submitting grant applications, presenting preliminary findings at conferences, and crafting research proposals. For my case specifically, I was already able to conduct fieldwork as background research as soon as the end of my first year, laying the groundwork for the consumer study I plan to conduct in December 2023, which will also serve as the first essay of my dissertation. At Purdue, I’ve found a good balance between being supported and being challenged as a researcher. I already feel like I’m ahead in my program.

How do you hope to make an impact through your research and career?

I know that I want to move back home to contribute to the development of my country. I think one of the most significant issues in Senegal, and why I think development projects conducted by decision-makers are not working very well, is that there’s just not enough data and relevant information, which can lead to poor research investments and unsuccessful policies. To bridge the data gap, we need to conduct impact evaluations of projects to understand what has been done and what should not be repeated. I think one important thing in research, in general, is not just thinking about it in terms of the problem and finding the solution. You have to come up with research that you think that decision-makers are going to be interested in. That’s why I’ll be looking for a job that allows me to work with decision-makers and develop policies that can be effectively implemented in the real world.

Valeria Mendoza is a program assistant with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety and is pursuing a degree in Food Science at Purdue University.