This study estimated the gains of virtual water, Phosphorus (P) and Phytic Acid (PA) through rice and wheat import to Ghana for the period 1998–2005, and assessed the implications of increasing rice import coupled with declining domestic production for food security. The total virtual water of Ghana associated with rice and wheat import for the study period was 5574 Mm³, while the total P and PA was 1,364,097 and 3,825,438 tonnes, respectively. Domestic paddy rice production started declining from 2003, but was exceeded by import from 2001 onwards. Particularly for rice, the combination of factors such as surging demand and per capita consumption, low yield resulting from less land under cultivation and irrigation, and high import bill, necessitates policy actions to remove constraints on domestic production. The paper, therefore, suggests policy actions to increase domestic rice production and to minimise Ghana's exposure to the risks inherent in rice import.

The effect of different levels of feed moisture (12-17%) during extrusion cooking, using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder on selected nutritional and physical properties of extruded products was investigated. Four different formulations were used based on wheat flour and corn starch with the addition of 10% brewer's spent grain (BSG) and red cabbage (RC) trimming reducing the flour and starch. The samples were: wheat flour+BSG (WBSG), corn starch+BSG (CBSG), wheat flour+red cabbage (WRC) and corn starch+red cabbage (CRC). Process conditions utilised were: constant feed rate of 25kg/h, screw speed 200rpm and barrel temperature of 80 and 120°C. The results indicated that increasing the water feed to 15% increased the level of total dietary fibre (TDF) in all the extrudates while extrusion processing increased the level of TDF in WBSG, CBSG and CRC but decreased in WRC products. Extrusion cooking increased the level of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total phenolic compounds (TPC) in WRC and CRC. In addition to water feed level affecting the TDF of the extrudates, also affected were the expansion ratio, bulk density, hardness, WSI, SME and colour. The protein level of the products and hardness of extrudates were related to the different formulations.