Head Chef at Labadi Beach Hotel, Akwetey Ahingwah, has said Ghanaian chefs and food producers must improve the presentation and packaging of local foods if they want to attract more consumers and compete with imported products.

He said many Ghanaians are drawn to imported food products not necessarily because they are better, but because they are packaged and presented in a more attractive way.

Speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show as part of Joy Sustainability Month discussions on Feeding Ghana Sustainably, Chef Ahingwah urged restaurants, chefs and farmers to pay greater attention to how local food is presented to consumers.

“When they look at this imported food, their presentation, their packaging and things are very, very attractive,” he said on Wednesday, August 19.

He believes local food could become more appealing if producers and chefs adopted better packaging and presentation.

“If we, the chefs or the farmers, are working on our packaging, we are working on our presentations, I think it will attract people more,” he said.

Chef Ahingwah said restaurants also had an important role to play by making traditional Ghanaian dishes part of their regular menus and presenting them in ways that could compete with imported meals.

“We as chefs and restaurants, we have to make sure we incorporate these local dishes in our menus,” he said.

“And also our way of presenting them, we have to present them to look attractive.”

Chef Ahingwah also said that the preference for imported products was not necessarily justified by nutritional value.

He said traditional foods are often less processed than imported alternatives, which can make them both cheaper and nutritionally valuable.

“These traditional foods, they are less processed compared to the imported ones,” he said.

He explained that imported food products often go through additional processing and may contain preservatives before reaching the market.

“For instance, when you look at sorghum compared to Polish rice, preservatives and things have been added to the imported dishes. That makes them so expensive,” he said.

“Meanwhile, our traditional food, the nutritional values are higher than the imported food.”

He said the cost of processing and other steps involved in producing imported foods contributed to their higher prices.

“Because it is processed, a lot is involved. Because of that, they are very expensive compared to the traditional or local food that we are using now,” he said.

Chef Ahingwah said the quality and freshness of local produce should be part of efforts to change consumer attitudes.

Using carrots as an example, he said consumers could be attracted to imported produce because of its packaging, even when local produce may remain fresher for longer.

“If you go to supermarket, and you are going to buy the same carrots, the foreign ones, if you look at the package, it’s very nice,” he said.

“You will buy it compared to the local ones.”

He said that better packaging should therefore be combined with the promotion of the actual quality and nutritional benefits of local produce.

“If you buy the local one and you buy the imported one and you put them down for three days, you can see that the imported one will start rotting. Meanwhile, the local one is still looking fresh,” he said.

“This tells you that our local food is very good.”

The Joy Sustainability Month is prouldly sponsered by MTN and MTN Mobile Money.