OUR PROJECT
Our project aims at alleviating the struggle that many in developing countries face, when they don’t have access to proper storage facilities and containers for food. More specifically within Malawi and Sierra Leone, the humid climates make it difficult to store foods for long periods of time without the contamination of aflatoxins (mold) or invasion of rodents. To protect the food within these conditions, we have chosen to utilize a container which would consist of a plastic bag within a clay pot. The clay pot would surround the plastic bag to help keep rodents from reaching the food and also help keep a cooler environment within. We will also place a calcium chloride desiccant within the plastic bag with the food to ensure that the air within the bag remains dry and resistant to high humidity. We plan on running tests with different amounts of desiccant and a control condition, in which we will use no desiccant, to determine the amount needed, in order to keep the food dry within environmental conditions over 90% humidity.
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We are in contact with Mark Manary (the Peanut Butter Project) and Peggy C. Papathakis, Food Science and Nutrition, Cal Poly. Mark Manary provided feedback on last year's project, saying that the target user could use an application like the container previously initiated, but it needs to survive 90%+ humidity and be rodent resistant.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
We need to identify and experiment with a sustainable and affordable solution that will effectively store food specifically against rodent intervention and relative humidity as high as 90%. We need to develop a design that will keep food dry while also preventing pest infestation that can be adopted by communities in Sierra Leone and Malawi who are losing food due to these problems.
