Makerere’s Tamara Apio Innovates to Bring Healthier & Nutritious Foods to Consumers

Every day that passes, we interact with challenges in life whose solutions could be the answer to the troubles of employment and what not that bother the nation. Often times, we don’t give these solutions the desired attention and end just passing them over. That was not the case for Tamara Apio, a graduate of Human Nutrition from Makerere University.

Ms Apio is the brain behind foodsciencestore.com – an innovation she masterminded at the School of Food Science and Technology (FST) to bring healthier and more nutritious food stuffs to the public and save them from junk and other processed foods that have no concern for nutritious value.

While studying at Makerere, she was always taken in deep thought whenever she set out to get something down her stomach. In her own words, she marveled at how most of the foods displayed on the supermarket shelves sacrificed food’s nutritive qualities for monetary gain.

“Too much sodium. Too much sugar. This one’s expired. This doesn’t have a UNBS mark. Do Ugandans know what they’re buying?” Ms Apio always questioned as she went about supermarket shelves.

She was particularly bothered that most of these processed foods were imported products from other countries and very expensive, yet Food Scientists at Makerere made cheaper, healthy alternatives.

“Every other day, I had always been intrigued by the innovative food processing ideas that combined high nutritional value, science, and incredible taste that the students came up with while pursuing my degree. These products were just a stretch away at the school food parlor. But did they ever get to the outside walls of the university?’’ Apio pondered, in an interview with Campus Bee.

The fact that people have access to websites and apps to order fast food and take away motivated her to come up with a way to bring these unique and quality health processed food products closer to the people who wanted and needed them.

Food Science Store was born – an online store where one can get healthy fully and minimally processed agricultural food products that render health and nutritional relevance to the consumer. Apio says that the products are of attested quality and safety and are made by Makerere University’s leading food scientists.

The online store is user-friendly, cost-effective, and convenient. It also offers nutrition education, counseling, and support for its users when needed, provided by a team of the university’s best nutritionists and food scientists.

“While quality and healthy food products were seen as a sought-after luxury, ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, these are a daily necessity.” She said.

The store was used by hundreds of people during the pandemic at the time every one needed nutritious and high-quality foods.

“For instance, although I love the taste of milk, I am lactose intolerant. Food Science Store therefore has so many milk alternatives to address that. I can order soy milk and soy yoghurt every week. They taste amazing and are made in Uganda.” Apio told Campus Bee.