4.4 Million Ugandans Fall Sick Annually Due to Unsafe Food

BY PATRICK JARAMOGI

KAMPALA, Uganda|SHIFTMEDIA| Food safety is everyone’s business! This is the theme for this year’s World Food Safety Day.

COVID-19 pandemic aside, Uganda is grappling with an issue of unsafe food that is affecting at least 1.3 million people annually according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

Similarly, 4.4 million citizens ( 10% of the population) fall sick after consuming contaminated food leading to death of 420,000 people including 125,000 children under five years.

As Uganda joined the rest of the world in marking World Food Safety Day, the Civil Society issued a press statement agitating for safe food.

“We are here as the World continues to struggle under the distress of Unsafe food that is affecting people’s wellbeing in almost all aspects; from health, economic prosperity, sustainable development,, and food and nutrition security,” said Agnes Kirabo, the Executive Director Food Rights Alliance (FRA).

The CSOs that included FRA, Consumer Education Trust (CONSENT), SEATINI, and CEFROHT addressed the media at the FRA National Secretariat in Kampala on Sunday.

Agnes Kirabo noted that Food safety-related risks continue to affect the lives of people with at least 1.3million Ugandans diagnosed with foodborne diseases across the country annually. “This represents 14 percent of all the diseases treated each year and therefore, immensely affecting the healthy budget. We are sure that this figure is not representative of the reality on the ground due to the inability of many health facilities across the country especially at the countryside to diagnose and detect such illnesses,” she said.

The majority of Ugandans have been reported to treat themselves without seeking treatment from the health facilities.

The CSOs observed that Food safety is being challenged by the global dimensions of food supply chains, and thus the need for reduction of food waste and efficient use of natural resources such as clean water.

Health and Nutrition

The CSOs also noted that the continued consumption of Unsafe food negatively impacts on food and nutrition security, health, the development of children, and the ability of adults to lead productive lives.

“Falling sick and being diagnosed with food borne diseases impacts on health and the magnitude is dependent on the degree of the infection. Where unsafe food leads to chronic illnesses such as cancer, the health burden to the patient and the health system is enormous. For instance, according to the Uganda Cancer Institute, annually one cancer patient requires UGX 6,000,000 (six million shillings) about US$1800 to undertake the recommended sick cycle of Chemotherapy treatment,” said Kirabo.

Trade and economics

The SEATINI Uganda Country Director, Jane Nalunga said thatFood safety has a significant impact on trade and the economy. “Food trade represents approximately 10% of total international trade. Recent estimates indicate that unsafe food costs low- and middle-income economies around US$ 95 billion in lost productivity each year,” said Nalunga.

she said that in terms of international trade, with over USD945.7 billion-global demand for livestock meat consumption, Uganda would be attracting a bigger return from the export market had the quality been up to international standards.

“The global demand for milk products is worth US$718billion. 80% of Uganda’s total exports are agricultural products yet this trade has been characterized by import bans and rejection on grounds of food safety,” she said.

Last year (2019), the European Union threatened to impose a new ban on Uganda’s agricultural export to Europe over severe chemical contamination of horticulture produce. This was the 3^rd ban since 2015.

“Uganda’s exports of maize and Sesame have also been rejected in a number of export markets due to the existence of aflatoxins and salmonella in the products.  These rejects have cost the economy and peoples’ livelihoods very dearly,” said Nalunga.

Consumer Rights

commenting on Consumer Rights, Henry Kimera from CONSENT note that Food Consumers have a Human Right to Adequate and safe food. “This Right should be protected, promoted, and fulfilled. Consumers are the largest social-economic group that fuels investment and trade. Without consumers or impacting their health due to unsafe food means diversion of their taste, preference, and incomes to other products and services,” he said.

He said that contamination of food in a food system is all over the food production and consumption chain. From the farm to the mouth.

On the Farm

Farmers while undertaking their farm work are not aware that they instead contaminate it. They use hazardous and prohibited chemicals such as those with Glyphosate, use chemicals during and after harvesting such as with vegetables like tomatoes leaving lots of chemical residues for consumers, misuse of hormones, and anti-biotic in animals such as chicken and diary to stimulate growth and or treat the animals. These hormones and antibiotics end up in foodstuffs such as poultry products, milk, and beef. Others have been seen using chemicals to induce drying of legumes and cereals to rush to the market.

Post-Harvest

There are cases where food has not been contaminated while on-farm but gets contaminated during post-harvest. The drying and storage of most food in Uganda completely reduces its quality and makes it unsafe. The drying of food on bear grounds increases its vulnerability to disease-causing bacteria such as salmonella, Aflatoxins, and other micro toxins. The storage of food with animals or with human beings, less air retted rooms, and not food graded containers make it more unsafe for consumption.

 Processing:

Majority of food processing plants in Uganda for cereals and meat are not using food graded technologies. These include maize meals, ground nuts Sheller and grinding machines seen in almost all markets, slaughter areas for animals especially pork and chicken among others. The use of nonfood graded machines results in the waring iron of these machines mixing with the processed food. Consumption of such machine particles has been highly linked to stomach cancer.

Imported Food stuff

Uganda’s food import bill grows by the day.  Uganda’s import bill for 2019 stood at USD 40.62, 452.20, 220.06 in animal and animal products; Vegetable products, animal, beverages, fats, and oil; Prepared foodstuff, beverages, and tobacco respectively.

Food Storage at home and food preparation

Food equally gets contaminated at home after it has been purchased from the markets or farms. Many households especially in urban areas store cooked and uncooked food in refrigerators. Sometimes this food is stored in plastic containers never designed to be kept under cold conditions and sometimes recycles containers. Power in Uganda and power surges beyond recognition of many affects the food kept in refrigerators making it prone to contamination.

By and large many households are unable to keep frozen foods in Uganda due to these reasons. Other foods such as dry cereals are never kept in airtight containers at home, their packs are half-opened making the food more vulnerable.

Some food still gets contaminated while cooking it. Most households in Uganda cannot afford stainless steel cooking ware and just like the processing machines, iron from the cooking wares diminishes in the food while cooking.

“It is imperative for the government as the duty bearer, to establish and implement workable systems that will ensure safe food along the entire food supply chain; that is to say, from production through transportation to consumption level, food remains safe for human consumption,” said Kimera.

The CSOs also observed that there is a great discrepancy in the degree of organization, infrastructure, teaching capacity across countries, and food protection (food quality, food preservation, food safety) that needs to be tackled globally.

They said that while the agriculture and food sector are singled out as number one fundamental priority to rebuild Uganda’s Economy after COVID 19 and building the REAL Economy, the safety of the food products must move ahead of increasing production and productivity.

The CSOs urged the government to enforce compliance at all levels to the minimum standards beyond what is being seen during the fight against COVID 19.