CREEC and MECS set out assess the practicality of cooking with electricity in Uganda, with an aim of understanding households cooking cultures, preferences, and other context-specific factors related to cooking.

A Discrete Choice Modelling Survey, carried out by CREEC, and Gamos Ltd (2019) showed that in Kampala, 88% of the households surveyed rely on charcoal as their primary fuel for cooking whilst LPG and electricity were used at 8% and 1% respectively. Survey findings further confirmed the perception that electricity is expensive for cooking as there was almost universal agreement on the same by respondents. 

With these insights, we set out to conduct a comparative study across the cooking technologies typically used in Uganda and the common local dishes. A Controlled Cooking Test study (CCT) was carried out with the help of everyday cooks cooking the different dishes they would normally cook at home. The CCT focused on three categories of local dishes: matooke, a traditional staple dish; beans and meat stews, and a vegetable dish – Sukuma wiki; and cooking technologies used were; a locally made improved charcoal stove, an LPG stove, an electric hot plate and an Electric Pressure Cooker (EPC). Findings showed that the EPC was the most energy and time-efficient as well as the least expensive option to prepare the dishes, especially for preparing meals that take a long time and require much energy. For example, when cooking staple foods such as matooke and beans stew, compared to the other cooking devices, an EPC uses three times less energy. The EPC can potentially save roughly half the time and 60-90% of the cost on dishes with a long boiling stage. Read more at the link below…