News update on dye sorghum cultivation in Benin
![ARF-3 Dyegrain in Benin - update](https://knowledge4food.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/180206_arf3-2c_benin-dyegrain-update-615x223.png)
Rob Nout and Anita Linnemann of Wageningen Food Quality and Design are visiting Benin in the context of the ARF project “Promoting dye sorghum cultivation”. They were given a demonstration about the traditional use of sorghum bio-colorant for colouring local cheese (“wagashi”).
This ARF project “Promoting dye sorghum cultivation to improve livelihoods in rural Benin in a context of climate change (Dyegrain)” addresses the commercial production of dye sorghum and the processing of its bio-colorants and grain in order to improve rural livelihoods in Benin.
The natural red dye extracted from the leaf sheaths of sorghum, a cereal that is grown in areas that are too dry for corn, has been used traditionally for a long time for, among other things, colouring local cheese. The process consists of: first washing the leaf sheaths, then crushing them in warm water, putting the (white) cheese (locally known as “wagashi”) in it and finally putting it on a fire until everything is boiling. In Europe there is interest in this dye because it may be a natural substitute for the artificial red dyes that are currently used in food.
![](https://knowledge4food.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/180206_arf3-2c_benin-dyegrain-images.png)