New food preservation center in Utah could save lives worldwide

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah company Baurau unveiled its mobile food preservation center – an idea predicted to save thousands of lives across the globe and provide food security.

After adopting his daughter from Ethiopia, Brian Neville, co-founder of Baurau, recognized a significant need across Africa.

"You can grow anything in these African countries. The problem is more than half of it goes to waste in spoils," Neville said. "These self-containers take this solution to the next level where now African locals can foster and control their own destiny."

Baurau officials created a mobile food dehydration center with filtered water – an idea that they piloted in Liberia.

Officials said each day 30 families come to the center to receive and prepare food.

The concept grew out of a brick-and-mortar food preservation center that Baurau opened earlier this year at Lango Town Market in Kakata City, Liberia. Residents bring locally grown foods — including mangoes, pineapples, cassava, rice, peppers, fish and chicken — to be preserved and packaged on site.

The center creates local jobs, with Liberian employees operating the facility and providing preservation services at no charge to the community.

"Everything is completely enclosed in these containers. They ship right to a port, make it to the location, and in less than a day — they are up and running and totally sufficient," Neville said. "One of these containers can see over 200 pounds of fresh food each day."

Officials said the machines, in these containers, are projected to last for 10 years with zero maintenance.

Monday, at the Harvest Right headquarters in Salt Lake City, Baurau officials presented the mobile containers to state leaders and food security researchers at Brigham Young University.

"We are looking for collaboration. It would be great to get together, on the same page, growing the same direction to make a difference," Philip Webb, Baurau co-founder said. "We're fully funded internally — we have no need for outside capital. We want to share self-reliance with the world. Farmers in Africa don't need a service project, they need tools to preserve food and create jobs. These mobile preservation centers do just that."

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