A fufu machine is a kitchen appliance used to pound cooked starchy vegetables, particularly

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

, plantains, or yams, into the West and Central African staple food

fufu Fufu (or fufuo, foofoo, foufou ) is a pounded meal found in West African cuisine. It is a Twi word that originates from the Akans in Ghana. The word has been expanded to include several variations of the pounded meal found in other African c ...

. Fufu machines can achieve the fine, dough-like, pasty texture of fufu in about one minute; traditional hand-pounding methods generally required at least 30 minutes for the same result.

Development

The first fufu machine was developed in 2004 by

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian electrical-equipment dealer Fadegnom Charles, who produced small numbers of electric fufu machines for local consumption. A mass-marketable design by a team led by Professor Kwadeo Kesse, Dr Lawrence Ansong and R.E Doddoo at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) was released shortly thereafter. The machine saw significant adoption in both homes and small businesses in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

by 2014. In 2017, a

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

lese entrepreneur named Logou Minsob successfully invented the model Foufoumix which allows for efficient mixing of the fufu into a well-set texture and consistency.

References

{{Togo-stub Cooking appliances Ghanaian cuisine Togolese cuisine