Rose Otema Baah is from Ghana and is a food scientist currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Pretoria. Her passion for food science and nutrition stems from her real-life experience as well as interactions with moderate to severely malnourished children in her community.
Her PhD research seeks to address child malnutrition and diet-related non-communicable diseases through the use of modern technologies to understand the macro and microstructure interaction of biopolymers. The aim of the study is to reduce the estimated glycemic index of sorghum meal, a staple food in west Africa, and to enhance food with health-promoting properties. The positive impact of a nutrient-dense intervention snack on the health of children over a short period has led her to explore innovations that can convert local produce into nutritious foods.
Her career objective is to use the skills and knowledge acquired from her research to build a long-term career in the health and wellbeing of school children in her country, and, internationally, by developing good food from indigenous crops, to promote good nutrition. She also dreams of leveraging her skills and expertise to help improve and sustain the school feeding program in Ghana by building a manufacturing plant that will focus on producing healthy snacks for children, mostly using the underutilized crops grown by small scale women farmers in the country.
Aside from being a food scientist, Rose is passionate about the empowerment of the girl child and seeks to continue mentoring young girls to become strong advocates for equal education and opportunities for the girl child.
