As global value chains expand and more nations participate in cross-border trade, value-added foods are increasingly beneficial in addressing food security, nutrition and poverty. The term “value-added foods” includes crops or foods that have been enhanced through a variety of improvements, including processing, fortification, increased safety or nutrition, better packaging or extended storage. The benefits of value-added foods include providing better nutrition to children and mothers; greater income for producers; access to new markets; and new processes to improve packaging and storage to reduce waste and ensure greater food safety.

This October, Agrilinks explores proven approaches to value addition from around the world. We’d love to hear about your innovative practices, new research and activities that focus on value-added foods. In the meantime, check out some of the best-of pieces that Agrilinks has to share from partners around the world!

A three-part series by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation on Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes in Africa:

• One Potato, Two Potatoes… Three Million Potatoes and More! How Can We Further Scale Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potatoes in Africa? The first installment in a three part series, researchers develop and introduce orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties to address vitamin-A deficiency in Africa.
• Affordable, Delicious and Nutrition: Scaling OFSP in Malawi the second installment about scaling orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) availability through value added processing and focuses on the specifics of how Universal Industries Limited in Malawi is working with USAID to scale up affordable OFSP products.
• Transforming Sweet Potato to Help Feed a Changing World is the final installment in the series that reflects on the broader context in which sweet potato processing can contribute to better nutrition and livelihoods at large scale in Africa and elsewhere.  

Other relevant posts and Activity pages: 

• Discover Purdue University’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling
• Farmers, Meet Processors. Processors, Meet Farmers, Winrock International
• Industrial Forum: Food Processing and Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato in Africa, Hosted by USAID, the International Potato Center, and Feed the Future Agriculture Diversification Project in Malawi, April 2018
• Aflatoxins Jeopardize Food Safety and Entrepreneurial Food Processing Opportunities in Nigeria, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy
• Balancing Systems: Making Food and Market Systems Work for Nutrition, ACDI/VOCA
• Blockchain Technology Creates a Rapid and Transparent Food Traceability System that Could Improve Global Food Safety, USAID Bureau for Food Security
• Using Agriculture to Improve Child Health: Promoting Sweet Potatoes Reduce Diarrhea, International Food Policy Research Institute
• Addressing Food Safety in Animal Source Foods for Improved Nutrition, Agrilinks webinar hosting Land O’Lakes International Development