Smuckers Volunteer Helps Craft Sweet Potato Waffle Mix

Valerie Diehl’s focus as a product developer on the research and development team these days is on peanut butter, specifically on the brand Jif. In the twelve years since she joined Smuckers right out of college, she has worked on consumer brands like Uncrustables, Crisco and Eagle Milk and in the natural foods business on beverages, grains, and snacks. This varied experience has always kept things interesting for her at work and is also why she has been a great asset to PFS as a volunteer. Valerie joined her first PFS project with a lemonade producer in 2022 and is currently engaged on another with our client Kokari Coconuts in Nigeria.

As their name suggests, Kokari Coconuts processes coconuts to serve the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical markets in Nigeria and across Africa. Kokari grows their own coconuts for their processing needs and cultivates sweet potatoes as a cover crop during the coconut off-season. The sweet potatoes are processed into flour for business-to-business sales. However, sweet potato flour is not considered a staple food or typically used as a swallow* in Nigeria. Kokari was looking into additional uses for the flour and considering a sweet potato waffle mix. They reached out to PFS to get expert advice on the best way to develop this waffle mix with desirable sensory characteristics. It was also important to Kokari to have a recipe with a simple ingredient list that is also gluten-free.

Though she had not worked on a product like this before, Valerie has been doing a lot of research and tapping into experience from her days in natural foods where she worked on sweet potato juice and on gluten-free products. She has helped Kokari come up with starting formulas for a waffle mix; proposing a number of ingredient combinations to achieve the perfect sweet potato waffle while keeping the amount of ingredients the consumer will have to add to a minimum. The Kokari team has been very open to recommendations and has run trials which have produced a lovely sweet potato waffle. The project team is currently working on how to improve the appearance, as the sweet potato flour mix browns after preparation. This project has been a wonderful experience for all. “Kokari Coconuts have been phenomenal to work with,” shares Valerie. “We have calls every two weeks to discuss the project and share updates via email in between calls. They have welcomed my suggestions and are willing to try different things, even when I’m not sure that it will work. It’s also been fun interacting with them and learning about their products. It has been a really rewarding experience.”

For Kokari, Valerie’s insights have been a game changer. “Valerie’s expertise has put us on the rightpath and we can’t wait to see what the final outcome will be.” -Kokari Foods

*Swallows are complementary foods that are made from popular staple foods like cassava, wheat, plantain, cocoyam in Nigeria, and are typically served with soups.