About us

More Than Just a Porridge

The e’Pap vision is a healthy African population. Using state-of-the-art technology, e’Pap’s instant, precooked porridge mix contains 24 essential micronutrients and 4 macronutrients to equip people with affordable, nutrient-dense food solutions so they have the resilience to take on the best opportunities in life – just by adding water.

The e’Pap Story

Rose and (the late) Dr Basil Kransdorff noticed organisations in South Africa handing out packets of food, which contained the bare minimum of nutrients – starch and carbohydrates (fibre poor, high sugar, empty calories). Their determination to create a more nutrient-rich product led to the birth of e’Pap, a unique approach to achieving daily nutritional needs in the fortified version of southern Africa’s staple food: pap (porridge).

We believe hunger and malnutrition are solvable. The hidden hunger crisis can negatively impact a country’s Gross Domestic Product by as much as 7%, and what we feed each child and vulnerable family today will benefit our people for the next 40 to 60 years to come. It’s why we take every opportunity to inform children in schools and the people we meet about the science behind nutrition.

What We Believe

Our Commitment

“Backed by science, packed with love.”

Vision

Community commitment is our motto.

In the dry, water-scarce regions of Africa, e’Pap is committed to improving the nutrition status of 100 million Africans by 2040. With an estimated population of 2 billion people by then, our raison d’être is to raise the nutritional status and awareness of Africans so they can successfully tackle the unprecedented and unpredictable times ahead.

e’Pap is working towards reconstructing ideas around the importance of fortification, good eating patterns, and their resulting positive health impact. Without this knowledge, health issues (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, depression) are rampant. We wholeheartedly assist individuals with cancer, HIV/AIDS, dysphagia, tuberculosis, and other health conditions in their journeys towards better health, because we know a little goes a long way.

Mission

One of the most pressing humanitarian issues today is empty calorie consumption. This means foods that don’t retain their nutritional content and cause deficiencies and otherwise-preventable diseases over time.

The e’Pap Foundation NPC is dedicated to providing nutritious food so that our children can grow, thrive and flourish. Our objective is to focus on improving the nutrient status of 100 million Africans today, and the estimated 2 billion ahead by innovating, producing and distributing nutrient-dense and affordable solutions.

“e’Pap is affordable and easy to access for people in resource-constrained areas. It is a suitable food to modify using the various diet textural levels for liquids and solids as per the guidelines promoted by the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiatives”

- Mershen Pillay, Audiologist and Speech Pathologist at University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

What is e'Pap?

More than just a porridge.

Picture this: A construction company has a large workforce. This workforce is divided into two parts: the number of people turning up for work on time to get systems running, and the number of people actively working at the right place to produce the right output, instead of loitering around.

This workforce is your body. The higher the number of people (macro- and micro- nutrients) that show up for work, the more nutrients are well-absorbed in your body – this is high bioavailability. The number of these people who work in the right place is high bioavailability. Made from wholegrain and soya beans, e’Pap is formulated to ensure the body recognizes and absorbs micronutrients with the help of amino acid chelates. Rich in Omega fatty acids, all additives in our instant mix are sourced from leading international nutritional technology companies.

Our food scientists are always at work, looking for the best and most sustainable ways to create a nutrient-replete product that interacts harmoniously with all the elements in the porridge itself, and with your body.

e’Pap’s porridge has 24 crucial micronutrients necessary for healthy brain development, immune system functioning, and fighting infections. Its 4 macronutrients (starch, fibre, protein and fat) aid in the rapid absorption of vitamins and minerals in the body. Our porridge’s micronutrients are: vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12, C, D, E, and minerals include potassium, iodine, phosphorus, with 9 amino acid chelates*.

A Nutrient-Replete Solution (in a Bowl)

The average African doing hard manual work eats to fill their stomach, but not their daily nutritional requirements. e’Pap supports nutritionally-vulnerable African communities in making informed decisions about their health.

From the traditionally-eaten staple “pap” – ground refined (dehulled, degermed) maize porridge – we created “e’Pap”, an affordable package of instant mix food that delivers 28 nutrients and is bioavailable and bioefficient. When our founder Dr. Basil Kransdorff introduced e’Pap’s concept to a group of nurses, one stood up to ask: “ikuphi ipap?” (where is the [e]pap?). As ‘i’ in Zulu is pronounced as ‘e’ – we discovered a name for our ‘electronic’ porridge – one that was backed by science, and packed with love.

For the first time in South Africa, we’ve changed the objective of nutritional interventions to focus on achieving “nutrient repleteness”. e’Pap looks to combat malnutrition and empower the people to find better health solutions and be drivers of sustainable economic growth and change.

"At e’Pap, we love to see and act on increased nutrition education in Africa and the application of sound research in food products for the benefit of people’s overall health."

- Kara Nolte, e’Pap’s food scientist
Our Team

Meet our Leadership Team

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Rosemary Grealy Krandsdorff
Co-Founder
Having co-founded e’Pap in 2000 with her late husband Basil Kransdorff, Rose has a 20-year track record in working with and learning about industrialized foods, the food chain, and how to keep the nutritional value of food high and efficient - the vision e’Pap aspires towards. Her life-long learning has been to materialize a desire to see a nutrient-replete African population, something we work towards with food and nutrition education. As the director of the e’Pap Foundation NPC, Rose links stakeholders and keeps us in line with our vision, making sure that what we do focuses on contributing to consumers’ nutrient status. As all aspects of food are important - from growing, to transport, to the logistics and industrial processing, Rose’s key interest for e’Pap is to ensure each part of our chain retains its inherent nutrients and consumers are better-informed about nutrition so they can make the best, affordable choices for themselves. Rose loves to work with fortified nutrition in our beneficiary communities, because finding all the clever African children who will grow and lead us to a place of dignity in the global economy makes it worth it. By focusing on that first building block of nutrition, she (and e’Pap team) aims to restore self-respect by making sure our population has every opportunity to reach their potential - through nutrition.
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Funanani Magobo
Food Scientist, Food Safety & Product Development
Our food scientist from the University of Venda, Funanani manages the production of e’Pap, from sourcing ingredients and other materials needed for e’Pap’s production, to conducting microbial analyses on both our raw ingredients and finished products. Before joining e’Pap Foundation NPC, he was the quality controller at Handyware Technologies. His love for working with e’Pap stems from knowing exactly the goodness that our product brings to the community, and being able to learn new things about his field outside of his vast university-taught knowledge.
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Kara Nolte
Production Operations Manager and Researcher
With an M.Sc degree in Food Science from the University of Pretoria, Kara manages e’Pap’s production operations while conducting research on our products. With her M.Sc experience in grain and legume processing and its impact on nutrition, Kara has helped ensure that e’Pap produces high quality porridge while adhering to essential safety standards. e’Pap Foundation NPC is a place where her values and skills meet, a place where she is able to apply her skills in Food Science to build up people and communities by offering Africa a truly valuable and authentic product.
Thandi McVey
Administrator
Backed with the experience of working at the Johannesburg Children’s Home charity shop, Thandi is now e’Pap’s direct line of contact with our customers. She handles the invoicing and dispatching of orders for our product, and is involved in the creation of a book project under the Foundation. Channeling her passion for communication and helping children, Thandi now helps many more people and has a creative outlet in the work she does for the Foundation.
Paul Nussey
Financial and Strategic Officer
Paul’s love for working with e’Pap embodies our vision: the opportunity to make a positive, tangible impact on the lives of South Africans. A B.Com Honors graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand, Paul deals with e’Pap’s finances and strategy while ensuring that our accounts and production teams are on the same page. With the experience of interning at a financial firm under his belt, he lends a helping hand wherever and whenever e’Pap needs it most.
Daniel Kransdorff
Logistics Assistant
Currently studying for a degree in B.Com Management, Daniel helps run the administration as well as distribution of e’Pap through our communities and ongoing projects. Having finished school and almost immediately started interning at the e’Pap Foundation NPC, Daniel’s passion for working with the Foundation comes from our opportunity to uplift our country through cutting-edge nutrition.
Farah Haffajee
Marketing and Sales Export Officer
Armed with experience in the retail sector and an unshakable belief in e’Pap’s vision and mission, Farah manages all the marketing and exports in our business division. Her exposure to the opportunities e’Pap provides and the ability to change someone’s life nutritionally lends to her passion for working with the e’Pap Foundation NPC, where she knows that she’s “a part of something great and innovative”.
William Falanga
Warehouse and Logistics
William is passionate about working with the e’Pap Foundation NPC because we’re a company born to care for human health, especially nutrients, which we consider the most necessary and important aspect of improving human health. As our forklift operator, machine inspector, and trained in food safety, William’s diligent work focuses on traceability, dispatch, and the Food Safety Management System at e’Pap.
Sue Grealy
Accountant
The go-to person for all of e'Pap's administration and accounting issues, Sue Grealy's experience in the motion picture industry has made her an invaluable asset to the e'Pap team. As our accountant, she loves to work for the Foundation and finds it rewarding to see the impact we're making as part of a positive and vibrant team.