Food Safety Africa - March/April 2022

FOOD SAFETY

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KNOW YOUR REGULATOR COMPANY PROFILE

EXOTIC EPZ LTD

MAKING REMARKABLE STRIDES TOWARDS ENSURING MACADAMIA NUT SAFETY

KENYA DAIRY BOARD TOPICAL FOCUS

TRANSPARENCY IN FOOD LABELLING PRODUCT FOCUS

MAIZE MEAL REGULATORY

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

KEVIN OYWA UNILEVER ETHIOPIA

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KENYA’S FOOD & FEED SAFETY DRAFT BILL YEAR31 |MARCH/APRIL ISSUE NO. 1 JUNE/JUL2022 Y 2021 YEAR 2 | ISSUE NO.

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GP

news digest #001

MALDI Biotyper® sirius and IR Biotyper® for industrial laboratories No doubt you have already heard about MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry? MALDI-TOF stands for MatrixAssisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight.

Some of you may already be using MALDI-TOF for microbiology, others may not. No problem - in this first News Digest we would like to introduce you to our latest MALDI Biotyper® sirius platform for microbial identification!

For sure, microbiological analyses can be diverse and colorful. You are familiar with microbial identification based on biochemical reactions, electrophoresis methods, PCR or Real-time PCR, sequencing, or radioanalytical methods? Take a chance to learn about our innovative unbiased fingerprinting solution using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for microbial identification.

Subsequently, our IR Biotyper® system based on FT-IR spectroscopy will be shortly highlighted as a strain typing method which can seamlessly be combined with the MALDI Biotyper® sirius system.

The Bruker MALDI Biotyper® can be used as a reliable rapid test method for hygiene monitoring, food and pharmaceutical quality control, pathogen detection, plus food safety related analytical questions. We also see the MALDI Biotyper® applied in environmental monitoring, control of pharmaceutical production strains, detection of animal or plant pathogens or water analysis. On top of that, plenty of research topics benefit from using the MALDI Biotyper®, such as projects on microbiomes, probiotics, beverages or new food – e.g. meat and milk alternatives are trendy and raise new questions in microbiology.

Proteomic fingerprinting with the MALDI Biotyper® offers you identification of bacteria, yeast and molds in minutes, starting from colony material. The beauty of the method is that you can measure both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, yeast and molds, in parallel, in one run. No need for many assays or different reaction plates.

Selection of colony of unknown microorganism from non-selective, selective or chromogenic agar

Preparation onto MALDI Biotarget 96 plate

96 samples from colony to identification in 30 minutes

Identification by pattern matching

Acquisition of MALDI-TOF profile spectrum

Basic principle: Cell material of gram-positive, gram-negative bacteria or yeast or mold is applied to a MALDI Biotarget 96 (96 sample positions), followed by adding a small droplet of “matrix” solution and air-drying. Once in the vacuum of the MALDI-TOF system, fast laser shots vaporize the sample’s proteins, which are then separated according to their mass during their flight through the flight tube, towards the detector, resulting in a very specific proteomic fingerprint mass spectrum of the microorganism. This fingerprint is then matched against the Bruker reference library of fingerprints, covering more than 3000 species.

Our MALDI-TOF instrument portfolio has grown over the years, and many of you may already be familiar with the microflex LT/SH or the MALDI Biotyper® smart. The new MALDI Biotyper® sirius series has recently been launched, addressing the abovementioned hygiene monitoring, quality and safety questions. With this new instrument platform, the whole procedure has become even faster, allowing low-, medium- and high-throughput sample processing, and is reliable and easy to use for all levels of sample numbers. The accompanying “fingerprint” reference library, covering more than 3000 species, can be used with the existing as well as with the new instruments, meaning that results are perfectly comparable throughout all MALDI Biotyper® systems.

Additional good news is that we keep the performance wheel turning by an annual update of the reference library, increasing year after year the number of species covered by the method.

Complementary, our IR Biotyper® system allows sameday strain typing of colonies, based on FT-IR spectroscopy. The IR Biotyper®, for which recently a new software version has been launched, enables easy, fast and cost-effective microbial typing for real-time quality control and source tracking.

IR Biotyper®

Are you interested to identify Legionella and discriminate Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 from other serogroups? Read more in our news digests #002 and #003.

Visit our website

Not for use in clinical diagnostic procedures. Please contact your local representative for availability in your country.

Bruker Daltonik GmbH Bremen · Germany Phone +49 (0) 421-2205-0

Bruker Scientific LLC Billerica, MA · USA Phone +1 (978) 663-3660

ms.sales.bdal@bruker.com - www.bruker.com/microbiology

© Bruker 03-2021, news-digest-001

The workflow is applicable for identification of hygiene and environmental species, starter cultures, microorganisms in ingredients, intermediate and semi-finished products or process water, of in-house strains, veterinary pathogens or pathogen confirmation in different food categories.

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In this issue 6 10

Editorial News Updates:

• • • • • • • •

ON THE COVER

Charity Ndegwa-

•

Operations Director, Exotic EPZ Ltd

•

Loise Maina- Chair of the Board, Exotic

•

EPZ Ltd

Jane Maigua Managing Director, Exotic EPZ Ltd

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Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency announces gene editing guidelines SimpliFine’s meat processing division, Associated Meat Packers attain FSSC 22000 National Drug Authority Uganda suspends distribution of alcohol adulterated with Viagra Zimbabwe develops app to furnish producers with information on best practices in beef production KEBS nods standards for hermetic grain storage bags Scientists invent biodegradable food packaging material that extends product’s shelf life FDA proposes valuations of water used in farming to enhance produce safety China publishes new rules to fast-track gene editing of crops in country, UK to follow suite FoodDocs receives US$2.4M shot in the arm to improve AI capabilities in food safety Kenya to set up food safety control office to harmonize sector regulations under new draft policy WHO launches online forum for global food safety professionals

Supplier News & Innovations:

• • • • • • •

Pela Commodities install aflatoxin removal machine in Uganda Procurant releases new software to accelerate inspection of perishable goods FoodChain ID acquires regulatory insights provider BCGlobal Diversey launches cloud-based data analytics platform Neogen Corporation ties up with multinational conglomerate 3M Candan Industries expands food-grade lubricant range to curb food recalls Neogen Corporation ties up with multinational conglomerate 3M

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

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MARCH/APRIL 2022 | Year 2 Issue 1. No. 3

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APPOINTMENTS UPDATE COMPANY PROFILE: Exotic EPZ Ltd Making Remarkable Strides Towards Ensuring Macadamia Nut Safety

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW: Kevin Oywa The Unilever Ethiopia food safety systems leader who started off as a tout and aims to be a life coach

TOPICAL FOCUS: TRANSPARENCY IN FOOD LABELLING 38 Consumers demand for greater transparency in food labelling intensifies amid covid-19 pandemic TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHT: HPLC TECHNOLOGY 43 Revolutionizing Analytical Chemistry In The Food Industry KNOW YOUR REGULATOR: KENYA DAIRY BOARD 50 Thirst For Quality Milk Drives Kenya Dairy Board To Invest, Seek Better Sector Regulation REGULATORY: FOOD & FEED SAFETY DRAFT POLICY 2021 55 Kenya Seeks A Major Overhaul Of Its Food Safety Management Mechanism To Bring Order In The Country PRODUCT FOCUS: FOOD SAFETY CHALLENGES IN MAIZE MEAL 61 Thirst For Quality Milk Drives Kenya Dairy Board To Invest, Seek Better Sector Regulation

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EDITORIAL

FOOD SAFETY

AFRICA

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Year 2 | Issue 1 | No.3

FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Francis Juma EDITORIAL Catherine Odhiambo ADVERTISING & SUBSCRIPTION Jonah Sambai | Hellen Mucheru | Virginia Nyoro DESIGN & LAYOUT Clare Ngode PUBLISHED BY: FW Africa P.O. Box 1874-00621, Nairobi Kenya Tel: +254 20 8155022, +254725 343932 Email: info@fwafrica.net Company Website: www.fwafrica.net

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Food Safety Africa is published 6 times a year by FW Africa. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the editor is prohibited. All information is published in good faith. While care is taken to prevent inaccuracies, the publishers accept no liability for any errors or omissions or for the consequences of any action taken on the basis of information published.

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African countries must strive to streamline food safety legislation to enhance compliance and guard consumer health

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Kenya’s new food safety bill is an important step, can help revolutionize legislation across Africa hey say that no legislation is perfect, especially in Africa, where lack of political goodwill and capacity, plus corruption, are always standing in the way of implementing most legislations adequately.

This is quite reflected in the way food safety is implemented across most countries in the continent – a multitude of laws are in place, while implementation remains patchy, fragmented and in most instances, reactionary.

It is therefore interesting to see that Kenya is on the way to passing a new food safety bill that will change the way food safety is managed across the east African nation.

The bill proposes the creation of a coordination office that will work closely with the current 11 state agencies and county governments to build capacity, implement and streamline the future of food safety in the country. You can read about the new bill in our Regulatory Focus article in this magazine.

However, some argue that the new office will not amount to any meaningful change, since it leaves the current structure largely in place, thereby adding an unnecessary extra layer into the system.

The opposers aside, we do think that Kenya is on the right path by proposing these significant changes in its food safety regulation. The new bill, whenever it sees the light of day in the near future, could act as a catalyst to other countries in Africa to also review their food safety legislation, so that the continent can improve the quality and safety of

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

our rich agricultural produce and enhance trade in manufactured goods as well.

TRACEABILITY, HPLC, KENYA DAIRY BOARD AND MORE In this issue, we have a rich collection of interesting articles, including our main feature on Traceability in the food value chain. We are also elated to highlight the excellent work being done by Exotic EPZ Ltd, a Kenya based processor and packer of macadamia nuts for the export market.

We have, meanwhile, introduced a new segment in the magazine. The Regulator Focus is a regular segment that will showcase the key regulators across Africa, their recent projects, achievements and future plans. In this issue, we focus on the Kenya Dairy Board.

Further, we have a deep dive on food safety challenges in maize meal – an important staple across many African countries, while we have also delved deep into the HPLC technology, in another new segment that will be shedding light into new technologies in the food safety space.

We wish you a good read.

Francis Juma Publisher

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NEWS UPDATE

FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency announces gene editing guidelines

NIGERIA – Nigeria’s National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has announced the national guidelines on gene editing and distributed printed copies of the guidelines to the public in Abuja.

Speaking at the launch, the Director-

General/Chief Executive Officer of NBMA, Dr. Rufus Ebegba, stressed NBMA’s dedication in ensuring that all geneedited products in Nigeria are properly regulated.

He said the NBMA act 2015 as amended, gave the Agency the authority

to ensure that all Gene edited products are properly regulated within the country hence the need to develop a guidance document which will guide and help in the regulation of gene edited products.

Dr. Ebegba added that having an organized research society is vital in ensuring the safety of gene-edited crops to the environment and human health.

He highlighted that the Agency should be notified of any Gene edited products in order to ensure it passes through the rigorous processes and procedures.

The Country Representative, Biosafety Systems, Dr Matthew Dore, pointed out that the policy was a laudable game-changer for bio-safety activities in Nigeria. He said the marked progress has come to diminish the fallacies, that were relied upon to move biosafety backwards in Nigeria.

CERTIFICATIONS

SimpliFine’s meat processing division, Associated Meat Packers attain FSSC 22000 KENYA/ZIMBABWE – SimpliFine, a Kenyan integrated food producer offering locally sourced and manufactured food products across East Africa, has announced that its meat and prepared foods division has attained Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000).

The company launched its meat and prepared foods division in July 2021 and has over the past five months renovated its facility and implemented safe handling and processing standards.

FSSC 22000 provides a framework for certifying and auditing Food Safety Management Systems (FSMS), which

BY PURSUING AND ACHIEVING FSSC 22000 CERTIFICATION, WE ARE FURTHER DEMONSTRATING OUR DEEP COMMITMENT TO FOOD SAFETY FOR OUR CUSTOMERS ERICK OHOMO, BUSINESS MANAGER, SIMPLIFINE MEATS

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meets the Global Food Safety Initiative’s (GFSI) Benchmarking Requirements – the highest food safety standards in the world.

According to Erick Ohomo, Business Manager for SimpliFine Meats, FSSC 22000 delivers a framework for food safety management using best practices to ensure consumer safety.

“SimpliFine places the highest level of importance on the safe production and handling of food and food-related products. By pursing and achieving FSSC 22000 certification, we are further demonstrating our deep commitment to food safety for our customers,” he said.

FSSC certification is the result of investment to ensure that SimpliFine’s customers have access to high-quality, safe, affordable food products, the company noted.

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

SimpliFine’s President, Steven Carlyon, noted that with this accreditation of the meats division of SimpliFine and their partnership with BigCold Storage and Logistics, SimplFine’s customers are assured of FSSC 22000-compliant food production, handling, storage and distribution.

Meanwhile, Associated Meat Packers (AMP Group), a joint venture business with Colcom Holdings Limited, Zimbabwe, a pork and meat products producer, has also achieved the coveted Food Safety System Certification, FSSC 22000, becoming the 11th Zimbabwean company to receive the certification.

The certification is a testament of the company’s continued commitment to continually improve the management and control of food safety.

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FOOD ADULTERATION

AWARDS

National Drug Authority Uganda suspends distribution of alcohol adulterated with Viagra UGANDA – The National Drug Authority (NDA) of Uganda has suspended the production and distribution of alcoholic products sold under the brand name “Stronger Weekend” due to their Viagra content.

According to NDA, Viagra, a drug for erectile dysfunction, is a highly restricted prescription-only medicine.

Addressing journalists in Kampala, Dr James William Tamale, the NDA Head of Regional Offices, said the products which carry Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) quality marks, pose serious health threats to consumers.

He said the Viagra-adulterated alcohol products manufactured by Thembomar Investment in Kasese District are sold as “Stronger weekend pineapple still table wine” and “Stronger weekend –opaque beer.”

“NDA undertook a laboratory analysis of the “Stronger weekend pineapple still table wine” samples picked from the market and results confirmed that the product is adulterated with Sildenafil

citrate [Viagra],” Dr Tamale said.

He said following the signal of adulteration, their team together with the police raided the factory in Mpondwe and collected the product together with other samples of the beer which also “tested positive for Sildenafil citrate [Viagra].”

Sildenafil citrate has serious side effects, which include extreme abdominal complications, respiratory and heart problems, renal failure, sometimes leading to coma, even death.

UGANDA’S NDA HAS SUSPENDED THE PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS SOLD UNDER THE BRAND NAME “STRONGER WEEKEND” DUE TO THEIR VIAGRA CONTENT

REGULATORY & POLICY

EFSA opens public consultation on proposed draft methodology for animal welfare

EUROPE – The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a period of public consultation on the proposed draft methodology for animal welfare under the Farm to Fork Strategy, which aims to make agriculture practices in Europe more sustainable, through an integrated food policy that covers the full supply chain As part of the Farm to Fork Strategy,

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the EU Commission is revising animal welfare legislation, including animal transport and the slaughter of animals.

The strategy document has stated that the purpose of this is “to align it with the latest scientific evidence, broaden its scope, make it easier to enforce and ultimately ensure a higher level of animal welfare”.

According to the strategy, “better animal welfare improves animal health and food quality, reduces the need for medication and can help preserve biodiversity”.

The move by EFSA’s Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) followed a request by the European Commission on what will be a “key component” of the strategy.

The draft guidance methodology will be used for a series of scientific opinions on the welfare of farm animals during transportation.

Avocado Society of Kenya crowns KEPHIS as best government institution

KENYA – The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) has been crowned as the best government institution in the avocado value chain by the Avocado Society of Kenya (ASOK), a registered association for avocado growers, exporters and other Value – chain players.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Avocado Society of Kenya Mr. Ernest Muthomi, presented Prof Theophilus Mutui, the Managing Director of KEPHIS with the winning trophy and certificate.

KEPHIS was formed by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service Act 2012 and its mission is to provide a sciencebased regulatory service by assuring plant health, quality of agricultural inputs and produce for food security, globally competitive agriculture, and sustainable development.

It works with avocado farmers and stakeholders by training them on good agricultural practices, the market requirements to export the fruit, varieties recommended for sale to overseas markets and opportunities in the value chain.

According to the organization, Kenya is currently the leading exporter of avocado in Africa and is in the top 10 globally. Between January to November last year, farmers earned Ksh14.48 billion (USD 127,464,788.71) from export sales of the fruit.

In 2019, KEPHIS introduced new regulations to guide avocado farmers and traders interested to grow and export the fruit to the Republic of South Africa in a bid to guard the market.

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

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NEWS UPDATE

FUNDING

LABORATORY

AgBiome develops bio-based crop protection solutions with support from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

AFRICA – AgBiome, producer of highquality crop protection solutions from microbial organisms, has received additional support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to extend its operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

The funding will enable AgBiome to proceed to phase 2 of its research aimed to develop novel, efficacious, safe and low-cost microbial pesticides for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan African countries.

The company’s research is focused on developing fungal control and nematicide for maize, sorghum, banana and yam.

This project leverages on AgBiome’s scientific expertise, infrastructure, and previous success developing biological pesticides.

In phase 1 of the project, AgBiome successfully developed microbial screening assays against the target diseases i.e., Sorghum Anthracnose, Banana Black Sigatoka and Aflatoxin contamination in maize, root-knot nematode in yams.

The company also identified 100 microbial strains with confirmed activity against one or more of the target fungal diseases and 25 strains prioritized for further evaluation.

Further to that, AgBiome diagnosticated 20 nematicidal bacterial strains able to control the root knot nematodes (RKN) on-plant and three lead strains prioritized for further evaluation.

In phase 2 of this research, AgBiome will focus on the evaluation of the strains prioritized in the phase 1 of the project under appropriate field conditions and select microbes with the best efficacy.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Zimbabwe develops app to furnish producers with information on best practices in beef production ZIMBABWE – The Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP) – Beef Enterprise and Transformation (BEST) Project has spear headed the development of a mobile application called “Kurima Mari/Ukulima Imali” to assist large-scale commercial and smallscale beef producers with information on best practices in beef production.

ZAGP is a response to tackle the challenges facing the livestock sector in Zimbabwe through financial support from the European Union (EU) amounting to €40 million (US$ 4,5092,800) The mobile app has six core components that include the beef information centre, health advisor, marketing, farmers chatroom, beef production economics and the beef calendar.

The beef information centre provides precise details on all the basic information one may need when venturing into beef production, value chain and different 12

breeds in the market. The health advisor provides the farmer with detailed information on infectious diseases, parasitic diseases and nutritional disorders.

The Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) communications officer, Ntandoyenkosi Ngwenya, said the app will not only benefit farmers locally but globally as it is accessible digitally.

“We are developing these mobile apps with the drive to enhance the cascading of value chain specific information to farmers because we strongly believe that digital information comes in handy in terms of easily spreading information to intended beneficiaries,” he said.

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

Seychelles launches new alcohol testing facility SEYCHELLES – The Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS) has expanded its testing scope through the opening of a new testing facility that will aid in analyzing the content of alcoholic beverages to ensure they are in line with standards and regulations.

SBS is the national Quality Infrastructure Service provider in Seychelles and is designated by the Public Health Authority as the main official laboratory for the testing of alcoholic beverages.

The gas chromatograph (GC) room was purchased through funding made available under the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Fund, to support the implementation of a government policy on alcohol prevention and abuse.

COMESA is a regional economic community in Africa with twenty-one member states stretching from Tunisia to Eswatini.

THE SEYCHELLES BUREAU OF STANDARDS (SBS) HAS OPENED A NEW TESTING FACILITY THAT WILL AID IN ANALYZING THE CONTENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES TO ENSURE THEY ARE IN LINE WITH STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS A gas chromatograph is an instrument used in analytical chemistry for separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition. Its typical uses include testing the purity of a particular substance or separating the different components of a mixture.

The Chief Executive of the Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS) told a press conference that the new equipment will help authorities know if the content of alcoholic beverages is in line with standards and regulations.

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REGULATORY & POLICY

REGULATORY & POLICY

FDA proposes valuations of water used in farming to enhance produce safety U.S – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a proposed rule that aims to enhance the safety of produce by requiring farms to conduct comprehensive assessments that would help them pinpoint and mitigate hazards in water used to grow produce.

This proposal is one of the critical remaining pieces of working towards implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and it proposes to replace some of the existing requirements for agricultural water in the Produce Safety Rule (PSR).

In 2015, the FDA published the final PSR, establishing science- and riskbased standards for the safe growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce grown for human consumption.

“There have been far too many foodborne illness outbreaks possibly linked to pre-harvest agricultural water in recent years, including water coming from lands nearby produce farms. As a federal government agency charged

with protecting public health, the FDA is committed to implementing effective modern, science-based measures designed to prevent these outbreaks from occurring in the future,” said Frank Yiannas, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response.

The proposed rule, if finalized, will change certain pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for produce and farms subject to the PSR, other than sprouts operations.

THIS PROPOSAL IS ONE OF THE CRITICAL REMAINING PIECES OF WORKING TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FDA FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT

REGULATORY & POLICY

KEBS nods standards for hermetic grain storage bags

KENYA – The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has given a nod to two new standards that will guide quality and safety requirements for hermetic bags designed for grain storage.

Through the new standards, KEBS has addressed the use of hermetic storage for woven polypropylene bags and rigid

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plastic silos for the storage of dried food commodities, derived products and seeds without the use of pesticides as a preservative in storage.

“As part of our contribution to food security, these standards will go a long way in ensuring that grains and cereals are effectively protected from infestation and moisture loss, thereby, reducing post-harvest loss,” says, Lt Col (Rtd.) Bernard Njiraini, Managing Director, KEBS. The two approved standards are KS EAS 985-1:2020 Hermetic storage bags and KS EAS 986:2020 Portable rigid plastic hermetic grain silo. The KS EAS 985-1:2020 are for woven polypropylene outer bags.

Hermetic bags are made using hermetic technology which is a type of storage technology that uses the concept of creating a controlled atmosphere to protect the stored commodities from contamination by air, moisture, insects or pests.

EU’s ban on titanium dioxide over safety concerns comes into effect

EUROPE – The ban on titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a food additive has finally come into force across the European Union (EU), after it was deemed as “not safe” by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Also known as E171, TiO2 is used as a color in the food and nutrition industry.

It is used in soups, sauces, sandwich spreads and processed nut products.

It is also used in candy, chewing gum, cake icing and white sauces.

The ban came as a result of an EFSA review of the item in line with its regulations on periodic re-evaluation of food additives that have been approved for use in the past.

“During the re-evaluation, the main concern raised was about the potential genotoxicity of titanium dioxide (e.g., its ability to damage genetic material in our cells.) While this updated assessment could not confirm a definite genotoxic effect, the EFSA panel concluded they did not have enough evidence to rule out concerns about potential genotoxicity,” highlighted the European Food Information Council (EUFIC).

The review body noted it also did not have sufficient data to calculate a safe daily intake level of TiO2 and moved to its ban.

Consequently, “producers will deal with a six-month phasing out period, during which companies will need to work on reformulating their products if they want to keep them on the market.”

“After this time, a full ban on marketing foods containing titanium dioxide as an additive will apply across the EU,” said Dr. Nina McGrath, Area Lead for Content Production, European Food Information Council (EUFIC).

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

13

NEWS UPDATE

REGULATORY & POLICY

Rwanda Standards Board launches online platform to automate its services RWANDA – The Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) has launched a Single Window Information for Trade (SWIFT), a US$ 125,000 project financed by USAID Rwanda through TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), effectively automating all its services.

The automation is expected to drastically reduce the time and cost of seeking various services from the board by the business community and other clients due to shift from the manual system that required many physical visits to the board.

Among the new and enhanced services now available online are applications for System Certification, Training, Made in Rwanda Logo, Calibration of Instruments, Sample Testing, Lab Designation, Various Licenses and Authorization to Break Seal.

Other services now available online are Verification of Certificates issued by RSB, Purchase of Rwanda Standards and Integration to the EAC Bureaus of Standards Information Sharing Platforms.

Speaking during the launch event, RSB Director General Raymond Murenzi hailed the automation noting that clients seeking various standards services from the board will now do so at a click of a button.

“This an outstanding addition to the performance of our systems, and an incredible gain in the journey towards realizing our endeavors to be a trusted party in delivering standards-based and customer-suited solutions that contribute in the country’s socio-economic development,” noted Murenzi.

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FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

China publishes new rules to fast-track gene editing of crops in country, UK to follow suit

CHINA/UK – China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has published new regulations for the approval of gene-edited plants, amid a raft of measures aimed at overhauling the country’s seed industry, which is seen as a weak link in efforts to ensure national food security.

The draft rules stipulate that once gene-edited plants have completed pilot trials, a production certificate can be applied for, skipping the lengthy field trials required for the approval of a genetically modified plant.

That means it could take only a year or two to get approval for a gene-edited plant, said Han Gengchen, Chairman of seed company Origin Agritech, compared with around six years for GM ones.

China’s leadership said in late 2020 that the country needed to use science and technology for an urgent “turnaround” of its seed industry, which has long struggled with overcapacity and little innovation.

Gene editing is a newer technology that is seen as less risky than genetic modification by some scientists because it does not involve adding any foreign genes to a plant. In its place, scientists ‘edit’ or alter genes already in a plant to improve or change its performance, aiming for better yields or increased nutrients.

“This really opens the door for plant

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

breeding. It’s an infinite opportunity to improve crops more precisely and much more efficiently,” said Han. China has also recently passed new regulations that set out a clear path for approval for genetically modified (GM) crops.

Following suit is the United Kingdom (UK) which has announced through the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) that new legislation will be implemented to cut the unnecessary red tape for gene editing.

This is to assist farmers have access to more resilient, nutritious, and productive crops. It also grants permission to UK scientists to conduct research and development more easily using genetic technologies for plants.

ACCORDING TO THE DRAFT RULES, ONCE GENE-EDITED PLANTS HAVE COMPLETED PILOT TRIALS, A PRODUCTION CERTIFICATE CAN BE APPLIED FOR, SKIPPING THE LENGTHY FIELD TRIALS REQUIRED FOR THE APPROVAL OF A GM PLANT

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FUNDING

FoodDocs receives US$2.4M shot in the arm to improve AI capabilities in food safety

UK – FoodDocs, an innovator in the food safety industry, has raised £1.8M (US$2.4M) to resolve food safety compliance issues with the help of

Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Currently, the process of getting and staying compliant with food safety rules is cumbersome and bureaucratic.

As a result, companies struggle and spend significant resources to achieve compliance. The funding was led by Bonnier Ventures with Forward Venture Capital, and Spring Capital also joining the round with existing investor United Angels VC. The funds will be used to continue the strategic growth journey, drive further expansion in the US and the UK to reach more clients and partners, and further improve AI capabilities.

“The food industry is hungry for change because of the pandemic.

Compliance processes need to become more efficient and company-friendly – that’s where we change the game,” said Katrin Liivat, Co-Founder and CEO of FoodDocs.

She noted that the use of AI makes getting compliant 500x faster than the traditional method and allows food businesses to save 20% of their time on staying compliant. Liivat added that the market is ready for innovative solutions to face food safety issues with simple yet genius food safety software.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Study shows high rates of adulteration in Europe’s culinary herbs and spices EUROPE – The European Union’s (EU’s) Joint Research Centre (JRC) has during a study on the authenticity of culinary spices and herbs sold in the EU, revealed that 17% of all the products are adulterated.

The study was commissioned by the European Commission amid concerns over the scale of “food fraud” arising from adulterated herbs and spices being on sale within the EU and fears that the presence of unidentified bulking or colouring agents were going undetected.

In line with the study, oregano experienced the highest adulteration rate with half of all samples of the herb

containing other ingredients, mostly olive leaves. It found that 48% of oregano samples were suspected of being adulterated as well as 17% of pepper samples, 14% of cumin, 11% of turmeric,

EU’S STUDY ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF CULINARY SPICES AND HERBS SOLD IN THE EU, HAS REVEALED THAT 17% OF HERBS & SPICES ARE ADULTERATED

11% of saffron and 6% of paprika/chilli.

The JRC carried out almost 10,000 tests on 1,900 samples of mostly ground or crushed herbs and spices which were considered most at risk of fraudulent or non-compliant manipulations, including 63 samples from Ireland.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland which participated in the research, said understanding and mapping the supply chains of a globally traded commodity that was high value by weight helped to identify vulnerabilities.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Scientists invent biodegradable food packaging material that extends product’s shelf life

SINGAPORE/U.S – Scientists have developed a ‘smart’ food packaging material that is biodegradable, sustainable and kills microbes that are harmful to humans thus extending the shelf-life of products by two to three days.

The invention is the result of the FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

collaboration by scientists from the NTU-Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health Initiative for Sustainable Nanotechnology (NTU-Harvard SusNano), which brings together NTU, Singapore and Harvard Chan School , U.S, researchers to work on cutting edge applications in agriculture and food, with an emphasis on developing non-toxic and environmentally safe nanomaterials.

The water-proof food packaging is made from a type of corn protein called zein, starch and other naturally derived biopolymers, infused with a cocktail of natural antimicrobial compounds. These include oil from thyme, a common herb used in cooking, and citric acid, which is

commonly found in citrus fruits.

In lab experiments, when exposed to an increase in humidity or enzymes from harmful bacteria, the fibres in the packaging have been shown to release the natural antimicrobial compounds, killing common dangerous bacteria that contaminate food, such as E. Coli and Listeria, as well as fungi.

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

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NEWS UPDATE

REGULATORY & POLICY

Kenya to set up food safety control office to harmonize sector regulations under new draft policy

Hamadi Boga- Former Principal Secretary, Ministry Of Agriculture

KENYA – The draft Food Safety policy 2021 and the Food and Feed Safety Coordination Bill currently under validation

has proposed the establishment of an office of Food and Feed Safety Control and County Food and Feeds safety control coordinating committee.

This will give the counties as well as new governance institutions the task of ensuring safety in the multibillion food industry in the country.

Currently the committee that has been handling the Food Safety Bill of 2013 has lacked a legal mandate to handle food safety matters.

As stated by Dr. Patrick Amoth, Chairman of the taskforce appointed in 2018 to review the Food Safety Policy of 2013, lack of coordination of agencies

in the food industry has been fettering enforcement of the safety measures.

In his statement during the validation conference workshop held in Kabete, Nairobi, he noted that inadequate food safety is a significant contributor to the burden of disease in developing countries including Kenya, and should be addressed as the food system develops.

The food value chain has for a long time lamented on the lack of a central body to direct and coordinate all government activities in the field of food safety.

However, the new body to be created by this Bill will rest these functions to a single body, avoiding duplication of roles.

REGULATORY & POLICY

Rwanda FDA conducts awareness workshop for food sector stakeholders RWANDA – The Rwanda Food and Drug Authority (Rwanda FDA) has embarked on a campaign to increase knowledge on its role, functions, regulations and guidelines related to required food safety standards among its stakeholders.

Over the past three years, Rwanda FDA has registered success stories in ensuring food safety. Nevertheless, there is still need to increase awareness about its services, food regulations, as well as guidelines established to ensure food safety standards.

To this end, in collaboration with Land O’Lakes venture 37, through Trade of Agriculture Safely and Efficiently in East

Africa Project (TRASE) as well as Private Sector Federation (PSF), the authority’s Food and Drug Inspection and Safety Monitoring Department has commenced a 2 days awareness creation workshop for the stakeholders involved in food business operations.

The campaign is expected to increase the turn up of applications for premise licensing, good manufacturing practices (GMP), importation and exportation both in numbers and quality.

It will also increase the compliance to different existing regulations and guidelines especially post marketing surveillance system, food promotion and

advertisement control.

In addition, a comprehensive data on possible issues facing industries towards safety compliance shall be compiled and a detailed report shall be produced and shared with the management for planning purposes and decision making.

OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, RWANDA FDA HAS REGISTERED SUCCESS STORIES IN ENSURING FOOD SAFETY

REGULATORY & POLICY

WHO launches online forum for global food safety professionals GLOBAL – The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the launch of a new peer-to-peer online forum for global professionals working on and sharing interest in food safety issues known as the Food Safety Community of Practice (COP).

The COP’s goal is to expand learning potential, share diverse experiences and knowledge, encourage an understanding of new perspectives and stimulate individual and collective learning. This functional and active community of practitioners serves to streamline and

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expand quality technical information over time.

The Community of Practice will share, exchange and develop knowledge and

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improve the practice of food safety, learn first-hand from experts at regular events, access updates on WHO food safety resources and new publications and share lessons learned and knowledge based on collective reflection of its members.

Members will receive access to regular webinars, monthly updates and food safety resources. They will also submit their resources, event announcements and other content on food safety to be shared with other members of the Community of Practice.

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CERTIFICATION

REGULATORY & POLICY

Solidaridad together with Mozambique’s Ministry of Agriculture create local GAP standard

MOZAMBIQUE – Solidaridad, an international civil society organization, has joined forces with the Ministry of Agriculture, Mozambique and INNOQ, a food security institute, to create a local Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) standard called the Mocambique Boas Practicas (MozBoPa).

This is in response to a study that disclosed high levels of pesticide residue on produce sold around Mozambique.

The Standard, which seeks to improve smallholder production and facilitate

access to preferential markets, has now been finalized with pilots taking place in Maputo, Manica, Manhiça, Mafuiane, and Angonia. These pilots ensure that smallholders have the capacity to produce good quality, traceable produce at the correct quantity at the right time.

For many years, Mozambique has faced an increase in chronic and sometimes fatal diseases caused by contaminated produce, according to Solidaridad.

Solidaridad has since collaborated with the Ministry of Agriculture and INNOQ which serves as the food security parastatal institute of standardization and quality and other stakeholders to develop and implement MozBoPa. The standard is presently still voluntary thus smallholder farmers can adopt it to gain access to more sustainable markets.

Solidaridad is partially subsidizing the certification of farmers registered with them as part of the pilot.

REGULATORY & POLICY

GFSI recognizes ASIAGAP version 2.3 following benchmarking JAPAN – The Global Food Safety Imitative (GFSI), a private food safety organization, and the Japan GAP Foundation (JGF), a private nonprofit organization developing and managing ASIAGAP and JGAP, have announced that ASIAGAP version 2.3 has successfully achieved recognition against GFSI’s Benchmarking Requirements Version 2020.1.

ASIAGAP is a GAP certification program approved by the GFSI. It includes elements of food safety, environmental protection, occupational safety, human rights, welfare and farm operations.

As the standards are created in line with GFSI Benchmarking Requirements, the food safety element includes an approach based on HACCP, food defense, and the prevention of food fraud.

The recognition encompasses the control points and compliance criteria for Fruits and Vegetable, Grains, and Tea. “ASIAGAP was first recognized by GFSI in 2018 and has continued to evolve their certification programme to align to

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the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements since, including when we issued version 2020 in March last year. It’s always a great pleasure to witness the expansion of certification programmes under the GFSI recognition umbrella, particularly in their first years. Congratulations to the Japan GAP team for this latest success,” Marie-Claude Quentin, GFSI Senior Technical Manager said.

ASIAGAP is the only international standard developed in Japan.

Rwanda Standards Board launches online platform to automate its services RWANDA – The Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) has launched a Single Window Information for Trade (SWIFT), a US$ 125,000 project financed by USAID Rwanda through TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), effectively automating all its services.

The automation is expected to drastically reduce the time and cost of seeking various services from the board by the business community and other clients due to shift from the manual system that required many physical visits to the board.

Among the new and enhanced services now available online are

THE AUTOMATION IS EXPECTED TO DRASTICALLY REDUCE THE TIME AND COST OF SEEKING VARIOUS SERVICES FROM THE BOARD BY THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY applications for System Certification, Training, Made in Rwanda Logo, Calibration of Instruments, Sample Testing, Lab Designation, Various Licenses and Authorization to Break Seal.

Other services now available online are Verification of Certificates issued by RSB, Purchase of Rwanda Standards and Integration to the EAC Bureaus of Standards Information Sharing Platforms.

Speaking during the launch event, RSB Director General Raymond Murenzi hailed the automation noting that clients seeking various standards services from the board will now do so at a click of a button.

“This an outstanding addition to the performance of our systems, and an incredible gain in the journey towards realizing our endeavors to be a trusted party in delivering standards-based and customer-suited solutions that contribute in the country’s socio-economic development,” noted Murenzi.

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NEWS UPDATE

TRADE, IMPORTS & EXPORTS

EU,US to resume bilateral trade in molluscan shellfish ending 10-year hiatus EU/U.S – The United States (U.S) and the European Union (EU) producers will be able to resume bilateral trade in molluscan shellfish after the two regions concluded negotiations to permit the resumption of the trade.

For the first time since 2011, U.S. producers, beginning in the states of Massachusetts and Washington, will be eligible to export live, raw and processed bivalve molluscan shellfish to the EU, including oysters, clams, mussels, and whole or roe-on scallops.

EU producers in Spain and the Netherlands will also be eligible to export live and raw bivalve molluscan shellfish to the United States.

REGULATORY & POLICY

FSSAI to introduce new regulations for bread, beer INDIA – The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is set to roll out new regulations for two important everyday consumption items – bread and beer.

The FSSAI CEO, Arun Singhal, said beer brands will have to disclose the calorie count per bottle or can while bread makers will be allowed to label products as ‘multigrain’, ‘whole wheat’, and ‘brown’ bread only if the items have specified amount of multigrain or whole wheat in them.

“With disclosure of calorie count on bottles, consumers can opt for lower calorie beer,” he said.

At present beer containers mention the alcoholic content by weight.

For bread to be labelled as whole wheat, it should contain at least 75% whole wheat, brown bread if it contains 50% whole wheat, multigrain if it has 20%

multigrain, and garlic bread if it has at least 2% garlic in it, Singhal said.

In the previous year, the regulator issued a directive that all liquor bottles should display cautionary messages of “Drinking is injurious to health” and “Don’t drink and drive” on their labels, similar to the one on tobacco or cigarette packets.

FOOD BIOTECHNOLOGY

China’s GM corn, soybean obtain safety approval for production

“Today’s announcement represents a positive step in the trade relationship between the United States and EU. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to both addressing trade barriers and building new opportunities for U.S. producers, and we will continue to work to strengthen the U.S.-EU trade relationship,” said Ambassador Tai. As the final administrative step after the equivalence determination was announced in September 2020, , the European Commission has adopted and published the export health certificate that will be issued by the Seafood Inspection Program at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that must accompany shellfish exported to the European Union.

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CHINA – Consequent to nearly 10 years of food and environmental safety assessments, genetically modified (GM) corn and soybean involved in a pilot program in China, have obtained safety certificates for production and application.

“The application of traits that resist pests and tolerate herbicides and drought has improved the competitiveness of genetically modified crops, such as corn and soybean, in production cost, price and quality,” Qian Qian, Director of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Institute of Crop Sciences, said.

Li Xiangju, a researcher at the academy’s Institute of Plant Protection,

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CONSEQUENT TO NEARLY 10 YEARS OF FOOD AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY ASSESSMENTS, CHINA HAS APPROVED PRODUCTION OF GM CORN AND SOYBEAN said the results of the pilot program show that the GM soybean varieties perform better as only one spray of herbicide can achieve over 95 percent of the weeding for those varieties.

He said the effect of GM corn varieties on the fall army worm, a major threat to crops, reached 85 to 95 percent without the use of pesticides.

The pilot project found that GM soybean can reduce weeding costs by 50 percent and increase yields by 12 percent, while GM corn can see yield increases of 6.7 to 10.7 percent.

Thus far, four GM corn varieties and three GM soybean varieties have obtained safety certificates for production and application.

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CERTIFICATION

Ghana launches food safety management scheme to promote consumer safety GHANA – Ghana has launched a scheme dubbed ‘Angalia Food Safety Alliance (AFSA) certification Scheme’ to promote quality system and safety management in the food value chain.

The scheme which was unveiled

by JobTrust Services Limited, seeks to create quality system for safety, fair human treatment of animals and good environmental stewardship.

AFSA ALLOWS FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY SYSTEMS TO BE VERIFIED, VALIDATED THROUGHOUT THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN

BY INCREASING BRAND PROTECTION

JobTrust Services Limited is the manager for Angalia Alliance Quality Control Schemes including Angalia Food Safety Alliance (AFSA). It facilitates the development of standards-based solutions by engaging players in the food industry to improve standards in produce, processes and products.

Speaking at the launch in Accra, Ghana, Food Safety and Quality Management Consultant, Emmanuel Paa Nii Quaye, said the scheme was to promote safety of consumers.

He explained that the initiative operates with other food safety management programmes and principles, including Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) to achieve food safety.

Mr. Quaye observed that AFSA was a third-party food safety certification scheme based on standards that define food safety management procedures,

prerequisites for food hygiene, handling, storage and transportation operations across the food value chain.

In addition, the certification identifies with food producers, processors and retailers to ensure provision of safer foods for consumers. It allows food safety and quality systems to be verified, validated throughout the food value chain by increasing brand protection and consumer confidence and loyalty.

REGULATORY & POLICY

SON unveils new standards to boost cocoa production in Nigeria technical committee to consider the adoption of the ISO 34101 standards on Cocoa as it aims to encourage the professionalization of cocoa farming, thus contributing to farmer’s livelihood and better working conditions.

The standards cover the organizational, economic, social and environmental aspects of cocoa farming, as well as featuring strict requirements for traceability, offering greater clarity about the sustainability of the cocoa that is used.

NIGERIA – The Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and stakeholders in the cocoa sector have unveiled new standards that would boost sustainable production of cocoa in Nigeria.

The Director General of SON, Mr. Farouk Salim, noted during a technical committee meeting on the review of the National Industrial Standards (NIS) 990:2017 for cocoa standards that the review would involve enshrining minimum requirements in the national standards for sustainable cocoa production in line with international best practices and to enhance global competitiveness.

As stated by Salim, the importance of

FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

cocoa in the global economy cannot be understated, that is why the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and African Regional Organization for Standardization (ARSO), which SON is a member, collaborated with representatives from cocoa-producing and consuming countries to develop a new series of standards to address longstanding issues in the industry.

He also revealed that the cocoa standard remains pertinent for the industry as it is expected to improve the quality of local cocoa production and its acceptance in the global market.

To this end, Salim called for the

COCOA STANDARD REMAINS PERTINENT FOR THE INDUSTRY AS IT IS EXPECTED TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LOCAL COCOA PRODUCTION AND ITS ACCEPTANCE IN THE GLOBAL MARKET. MR. FAROUK SALIM, DIRECTOR GENERAL, SON

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SUPPLIER NEWS & INNOVATIONS

Pela Commodities install aflatoxin removal machine in Uganda

UGANDA – Uganda will soon be able to rid itself of the aflatoxin menace following plans by Pela Commodities Limited, a Ugandan company that buys, processes, packages and markets agricultural grain products, to install the country’s first Aflatoxin removal machine, TOXI-SCRUB in the coming weeks.

Commenting on the latest development, the Pela Commodities General Manager, Isaiah Langa said Uganda’s grain handlers have had a long-standing aflatoxin problem, but this is a step in the right direction to help enhance our yields and output.

“It will turn harmful maize or grain that cannot be exported or sold to reputable processors into a high-value product. We have already trained our team members on aflatoxin testing and they’re ready to start operating the machine,” he said.

TOXI-SCRUB cleans the infested grain like maize, sorghum and wheat. It involves a grain-washing machine and a chemical, known as ozone, which effectively scrubs and cleans the affected seed, but also penetrates the seed to kill the fungus that has penetrated it.

The machine which recently arrived in the country, is designed by EyeGrain, a crop monitoring and treatment

TOXI-SCRUB WILL TURN HARMFUL MAIZE OR GRAIN THAT CANNOT BE EXPORTED OR SOLD TO REPUTABLE PROCESSORS INTO A HIGH-VALUE PRODUCT. ISAIAH LANGA, GENERAL MANAGER, PELA COMMODITIES

technology provider, and supplied along with the grain handling equipment by Perry Engineering who are an authorized reseller of the TOXI-SCRUB system.

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Eagle Protect discovers gloves contamination posing risk to consumers health U.S – Eagle Protect, the industry leader in glove related cross-contamination research, have found at least 10 different enterotoxigenic strains of Bacillus cereus contamination on new and unused singleuse gloves during its independent testing of 26 different brands.

These findings are of note because the Bacillus microbe was found responsible for a recent recall of meat products, triggered by testing from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Eagle Protect’s findings, combined with the meat recall notice, has prompted the company to issue an urgent warning to the food handling industry on the hidden risks of not just chemical but also significant microbial single-use glove contamination in the existing supply chain.

It’s estimated that Bacillus cereus is the fifth-leading cause of foodborne

illness, with over 60,000 cases each year.

Other pathogens identified on gloves that may represent significant public health hazards for glove users or food establishments included Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridoides difficile, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Bacillus anthracis commonly known as Anthrax.

Procurant releases new software to accelerate inspection of perishable goods

U.S – Procurant, a cloud-based software company transforming the global food supply chain, has announced the release of Procurant Inspect, a mobile software solution that accelerates and modernizes the perishable goods inspection process at retail grocery distribution centers.

Procurant Inspect is a mobile application that runs on any standard tablet device. The solution simplifies the labor-intensive process of inspecting produce and other perishables at distribution centers.

“Procurant Inspect is a game changer for retailers, essentially linking the produce receiving docks to the buyers and sellers of fresh produce. It helps produce inspectors be more effective and enables all supply chain participants to have up-to-the-minute information and

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long-term trend data about the quality of inbound products,” said Kevin Brooks, Chief Marketing Officer, Procurant.

In addition, Procurant Inspect integrates with the Procurant One platform, where buyers and suppliers are already managing shipment information and purchase orders.

This integrated approach supports advanced analytics into supplier performance and quality, and provides instant visibility to all parties if rejections occur.

Procurant Inspect features include commodity-specific USDA standard defect lists, instant visibility into inspection status and scores for buyers using Procurant One and advanced search capability for inspectors to quickly identify orders.

FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

Lightsense Technology partners with Pure Norwegian Seafood to develop pathogen detection tech aquaculture, to bring our combined unique and valuable insights to this important emerging area for protecting and enhancing our food supply via early pathogen detection,” said Terje Skotheim, Founder & CEO of Lightsense Technology.

EPS’s advanced high-sensitivity minispectrometer designs also enable new lightweight and inexpensive handheld devices to support solutions for food processing, and beyond.

U.S – Lightsense Technology, a pioneer in developing multi-spectroscopic solutions, has partnered with Pure Norwegian Seafood to develop multi-spectral instruments based on Lightsense’s patented Enhanced Photodetection Spectroscopy (EPS) technology for detection of bacterial pathogens in salmon processing.

Pure Norwegian Seafood AS is a leader in the aquaculture farming of Atlantic Salmon in Norway. The company has long been a Label-Rouge certified supplier to the French market and has also been a regular supplier to some of

the most demanding customers globally.

“We are very excited to partner with Lightsense Technology with their innovative multi-spectral solution for pathogen detection and believe that together we can bring a significant improvement to salmon processing and the aquaculture industry,” said Eldar Henden, CEO of Pure Norwegian Seafood AS. Bacterial pathogens can result in discarding large quantities of salmon products with a severe financial impact.

“We are pleased to team with Pure Norwegian Seafood, a leader in marine

WE ARE VERY EXCITED TO PARTNER WITH LIGHTSENSE TECHNOLOGY WITH THEIR INNOVATIVE MULTISPECTRAL SOLUTION FOR PATHOGEN DETECTION ELDAR HENDEN, CEO, PURE NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD AS

FoodChain ID acquires regulatory insights provider BCGlobal U.S – FoodChain ID, a leading provider of technology-enabled food safety, quality, and sustainability solutions, has acquired BCGlobal, a leading provider of database subscription services delivering timely and accurate information on the constantly changing global regulatory requirements impacting the trade of food, beverage, and agricultural products.

“This acquisition is a strong strategic

FOOD CHAIN ID STOOD APART FROM OTHER POSSIBLE BUYERS BECAUSE THEY SHARED OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCURACY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE, BILL BRYANT, CHAIRMANA, BRYANT CHRISTIE, INC

FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

fit with FoodChain ID’s technical services, testing, and food safety business. It expands our suite of technologies that make the food supply chain safe, compliant, and transparent,” explains FoodChain ID CEO Brad Riemenapp.

BCGlobal, formerly the regulatory intelligence and software division of Bryant Christie Inc., has developed the gold standard in agricultural commodity regulatory trade information validated by governments and leading private corporations.

This easy-to-use software enables users to identify and compare international regulation standards quickly.

“Food Chain ID stood apart from other possible buyers because they shared our commitment to accuracy and customer service, and because they appreciated the value of the BCGlobal team. While we had big plans for BCGlobal, Food Chain has the global presence and technology resources needed to take the

BCGlobal modules to their next levels of excellence,” said Bill Bryant, Chairman, Bryant Christie, Inc. BCGlobal is the only company in its space to provide a complete, accurate, and timely full turn-key regulatory compliance data supply chain solution, Riemenapp said.

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SUPPLIER NEWS & INNOVATIONS

Agilent Technologies to enhance chromatography, mass spectrometry platforms

U.S – Agilent Technologies, an American analytical instrumentation development and manufacturing company, will enhance its chromatography and mass spectrometry platforms with artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed

by Virtual Control, an AI and machine learning software developer.

The AI technology dubbed ACIES, automates the labour-intensive task

of gas chromatography (GC)/mass spectrometry (MS) data analysis improving efficiency in the laboratory workflow, from sampling to reporting.

With the acquired technology, Agilent is set to improve the productivity, efficiency and accuracy of high throughput of its labs across the globe.

“Our acquisition of this advanced technology is just one more example of

Agilent’s focus on delivering the insights and innovation our customers can use to provide industry-leading solutions. We’re extremely pleased to be adding these additional capabilities to our product line-up,” said Jacob Thaysen, President of Agilent Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group.

The company will integrate the technology into its MassHunter software package for LC/MS and GC/MS instruments.

The Agilent MassHunter Workstation software provides intuitive, yet powerful, instrument control, data acquisition, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and reporting.

The acquisition is Agilent’s latest investment in digital technology to bolster lab productivity.

Diversey launches cloud-based data analytics platform NETHERLANDS – Diversey, an American provider of cleaning and hygiene products has launched its clean-in-place (CIP) cloud-based data analytics platform, IntelliCIP, globally.

IntelliCIP securely collates and processes food and beverage (F&B) production CIP data for rapid insight into hygiene compliance and operational performance.

By analyzing and monitoring selected data points, a production facility can easily access a quick view of CIP processes for any date range, specific unit, CIP circuit, or recipe, to truly understand if the

process is in control – then act on results if compliance with defined parameters has not been met.

Before now, identifying the use of excess resources, or a contamination risk from unmet hygiene parameters, has been largely unexplored. IntelliCIP helps ensure food safety, quality, and traceability by unlocking information typically buried within the automation system, or manual tracking results.

IntelliCIP’s easy-to-use interface can show where a CIP may be resulting in lost resources. Data is automatically collected and analyzed to provide proof of compliance with the cleaning

protocols, alongside progressively revealed indicators and opportunities identifying where the process can be optimized.

BEFORE NOW, IDENTIFYING THE USE OF EXCESS RESOURCES, OR A CONTAMINATION RISK FROM UNMET HYGIENE PARAMETERS, HAS BEEN LARGELY UNEXPLORED.

ORIVO, Imprint Analytics partner to provide seafood products’ authentication

AUSTRIA/NORWAY – ORIVO and Imprint Analytics, both of which are food testing and authentication companies, have tied up to provide transparency 22

to the sea food market through highly advanced chemical fingerprinting analysis.

Imprint Analytics came up with the method that uses multi-isotope fingerprints for product authentication.

According to Dr David Psomiadis, Chairman of Imprint), the technical solution created by the Austrian authenticity team is superior than any other available. ”Until now, there has not been a published or validated method to provide a reliable assessment of the origin of

MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

omega-3 oils and supplements. This database is also the most comprehensive and can be expanded with new countries.,” he said.

He explained that the multi-isotope fingerprint, which is used based on stateof the-art analytical equipment , is what gives the power to this large database.

The Austrian group will bring its ‘technical expertise’ in the field of application to the collaboration while ORIVO provides its deep seafood market knowledge’ as well as ‘experience in authenticity problems’.

FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

Mérieux NutriSciences expands footprint in dietary supplements industry, acquires Dyad Labs

U.S – Mérieux NutriSciences, a world leader in food safety, quality and sustainability, has announced the acquisition of Dyad Labs, an independent ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited contract laboratory, dedicated to the dietary supplements industry.

This acquisition diversifies Mérieux NutriSciences’ service offering and expands its footprint in the US to better serve the dietary supplements industry.

Mérieux NutriSciences is part of Institut

Mérieux, a French Holding company that imagines and develops new approaches in the fields of diagnostics, immunotherapy, food safety and nutrition.

“We are enthusiastic about having the talented team at Dyad Labs join us and welcome them to our network of laboratories. This acquisition supports our position as a major player in the dietary supplement market and strengthens our presence in the United States,” said Sébastien Moulard, President of Mérieux NutriSciences, North America.

Founded in 2008 and located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Dyad Labs previously called Genysis Labs, was created as the in-house testing laboratory for a large contract manufacturer of nutritional supplement products.

The lab which provides specialized chemistry and microbiology testing services to the Nutraceutical, Food and Beverage industries, comprises six separate lab areas with over 20,000 sq. feet (≈ 2000m2) of dedicated laboratory space.

Candan Industries expands food-grade lubricant range to curb food recalls AUSTRALIA – With recall concerns on the rise amongst manufacturers, Queensland-based company Candan Industries has taken steps to expand their INOX food-grade lubricant range in an effort to greatly reduce the risk of accidental contamination.

Candan Industries is one of the biggest Australian manufacturers of lubricants. The Australia and New Zealand Food Statistics Board revealed that 55 per cent of product recalls were caused by chemical, foreign-body, or biological contamination, between 2008 and 2017 – resulting in millions of dollars in profit losses to manufacturers.

Businesses also risk falling out of favour with their customers when a recall is announced, which is why careful consideration must be made in the management of chemicals, greases and lubricants that are used in a food and beverage processing environment.

As a national distributor of INOX products, Bearing Service Pty Ltd (BSC) is working in conjunction with managers

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and representatives to promote their range of food-safe oils and greases in the food and beverage sector across Australia.

“INOX has three key product formulas developed for maintenance of machinery in food and beverage plants: MX3 FG, MX5 and MX6. The MX3 FG is a multipurpose penetrating oil spray, ideal for threads and switches for protection from corrosion,” explains Steve Keown, BSC National Product Manager for Lubricants.

55 PER CENT OF PRODUCT RECALLS BETWEEN 2008 AND 2017 WERE CAUSED BY CHEMICAL, FOREIGNBODY, OR BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION.

Neogen Corporation ties up with multinational conglomerate 3M

U.S – Neogen Corporation, an international developer of food safety solutions, has announced a definitive merger with 3M, an American multinational conglomerate corporation, that will see 3M’s food safety business tie up with Neogen.

The combination will create an innovative leader in the food safety sector with a comprehensive product range and a strategic focus on the category’s longterm growth opportunities.

According to Neogen’s President and Chief Executive Officer, John Adent, this combination will enhance Neogen’s position in this new era of food security, equipping them with an expanded product line that enables them to capitalize on their growing footprint, reaching more customers, more often, while continuing their track record of strong and consistent growth.

“The heightened global focus on food security, sustainability and supply chain solutions around the world presents exciting opportunities for NEOGEN to be positioned as an innovative leader at the forefront of the growth and digitization of the industry,” he expressed.

The transaction implies an enterprise value for 3M’s food safety business of approximately US$5.3 billion, including US$1 billion in new debt to be incurred by 3M’s food safety business.

Mike Roman, 3M’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer pointed out that Neogen and 3M share a deep commitment to quality, innovation and customer satisfaction and long histories of industry leadership.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND FOOD STATISTICS BOARD

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APPOINTMENTS UPDATE Dr. Robert Califf approved as new FDA Commissioner

U.S – The United States’ Senate has approved Dr. Robert Califf as the next Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), filling a critical role at the key federal agency that has been without a Senate-confirmed leader for more than a year.

It took President Joe Biden nearly 10 months to nominate Califf, despite the ongoing and deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

The final vote was 50 to 46, with six Republican Party senators voting to confirm Califf and five Democrats voting against.

Dr. Califf is a cardiologist who served as the FDA commissioner in the last year of the Obama administration.

As the top official of the FDA, he is committed to strengthening programs and policies that enable the agency to carry out its mission to protect and promote the public health. Dr. Califf served as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco from February 2015 until his first appointment as Commissioner in February 2016.

Prior to rejoining the FDA, Dr. Califf was head of medical strategy and Senior Advisor at Alphabet Inc., contributing to strategy and policy for its health subsidiaries Verily Life Sciences and Google Health.

Dr. Janet Woodcock has been serving as the acting FDA commissioner since the beginning of the Biden administration.

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Shimadzu adopts new management structure to further growth JAPAN – Shimadzu Corporation, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of scientific instrumentation, has adopted a new management leadership structure in order to achieve further growth and increase its corporate value in the global market.

Akira Nakamoto who is the current Representative Director, Chairman of the Board, has been appointed as Director, Senior Advisor. He is expected to resign as Director come June 2022 during the annual shareholders meeting.

Nakamoto was serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Representative Director in Shimadzu Corporation since June 2015. He joined the Company in April 1969.

The Representative Director, President and CEO, Teruhisa Ueda, will take over from Nakamoto as the new Representative Director, Chairman of the Board.

Ueda has been the CEO and President of Shimadzu Corporation since June 2015. He served as Senior Managing Executive Officer, Managing Executive Officer and Manager of Analysis

Measurement Operations Department at Shimadzu Corporation. He has been a Representative Director of Shimadzu Corporation since June 2015.

In the same way, Teruhisa will hand over his current position to Yasunori Yamamoto who is the current Director, Senior Managing Executive Officer.

Yamamoto graduated from Osaka University with a master of Engineering.

He joined Shimadzu in 1983 and has since risen through the leadership

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ranks. He is currently a Director and Board Member in addition to being the Senior Managing Executive Officer, CFO, in charge of Strategy Planning and Corporate Communication.

All of the appointments will take effect as from April 1st 2022.

International Fresh Produce Association appoints new food safety leaders

U.S – In order to bolster its support team and improve food safety in the produce sector, the newly formed International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA), has tapped Gretchen Wall as its Director, Food Safety and Quality, and promoted Dr. Emily Griep to Vice President, Regulatory Compliance and Global Food Safety Standards.

IFPA is the global trade association representing the fresh produce and floral supply chains. It is a new association formed under the leadership of the two previous fresh produce and floral associations, United Fresh Produce Association and Produce Marketing Association.

The two organizations reached an agreement to join forces in March 2021 to create a new global trade association for the produce industry.

Launched on January 1, 2022, IFPA will continue the legacy of the two organizations, providing extensive training and professional development opportunities for members wanting to expand or fortify their produce safety knowledge.

The appointment of Wall and the

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promotion of Griep will provide IFPA with a strong foundation of produce safety support for the industry.

Dr. Brent Kobielush joins TAG’s consulting team of food safety experts

We R Food Safety! promotes Molly Linden to Senior Food Safety and Quality Consultant U.S – We R Food Safety! (WRFS), the only provider of food safety software supported by a full-time, top-tier industry consulting staff, has announced the promotion of Molly Linden to Senior Food Safety and Quality (FS&Q) Consultant, effective immediately.

Linden previously served as a tier 1 Food Safety Consultant where she worked with clients on food safety assessments, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans, deviation reports, food safety system development or regulatory documentation.

As a Senior Consultant, Linden will report directly to the Company President and oversee the company’s FS&Q team,

according to Quality Assurance & Food Safety Magazine. The Senior Consultant will train FS&Q Consultants, drive initiatives to keep WRFS on the cutting edge of tactics and strategies related to food safety and ensure that the FS&Q team exceeds its clients’ needs in the most effective manner possible.

Linden is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. She has worked as a researcher and has extracted, amplified and sequenced DNA using next-generation wholegenome sequencing methods, and also performed molecular biological research on RNA picornaviruses, among other projects.

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U.S – The Acheson Group (TAG), a global consulting company comprised of food safety experts with in-depth expertise and real-world experience, has announced that Dr. Brent Kobielush has joined its team of experts as Director, Food Safety.

Kobielush comes to TAG from Cargill, Inc., the largest food and feed manufacturing company in the world, where he served as Director, U.S. Regulatory Affairs, providing leadership and technical regulatory direction to ensure that the company’s products and processes were compliant with all applicable Food and Drug Administration food laws, and leading the rollout of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) across 500-plus facilities across the globe.

Kobielush brings to TAG an extensive expertise in regulatory toxicology in human and animal foods and foreign supplier verification.

“We are excited to have Dr. Kobielush join TAG’s team of experts. His strong industry background, commitment and regulatory and toxicology expertise will help to further expand TAG’s offerings and services in these areas. We look forward to Brent’s engagement with TAG clients and the 20-plus members of TAG’s food safety and public health team,” said TAG President and CEO David Acheson.

Kobielush was recently recognized

by Bethel University’s as one of the first 4 Under 40 Alumni Achievement Award recipients. Bethel University’s National Alumni Board annually seeks and accepts nominations for the 4 Under 40 Alumni Achievement Award.

Nici Bush to take helm of Innovation, Science and Technology at confectionary giant Mars U.S – Mars, Inc, an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products, has appointed Nici Bush, the current Vice President of Workplace Transformation, as the new Vice President of Innovation, Science and Technology.

During her nearly three decades at Mars, Ms. Bush has worked across multiple business areas and in numerous countries.

She spent 15 years in Mars Petcare operations and supply management, and nine years in Mars Chocolate, where she ultimately oversaw supply, then research and development (R&D) for the global business.

She later led the Mars science-based cocoa flavanol supplement business as the General Manager for CocoaVia in Mars Edge.

In her new role, she will oversee research and development, including science and technology, innovation, quality and food safety, scientific and regulatory affairs, the Mars Global Food Safety Center and the Mars Advanced Research Institute.

“I am honoured to have the opportunity to lead a team of technical experts, scientists and innovators of the highest calibre in the industry. Together, we will strive to leverage leading science for the benefit of our consumers and to help solve global challenges,” Bush said.

She received a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Bush will succeed JeanChristophe Flatin, President of Innovation, Science and Technology, who will depart following a 30-year career with the company.

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COMPANY PROFILE

NAME: Exotic EPZ LTD SECTOR: Fresh Produce COUNTRY: Kenya

WEBSITE:

www.exoticepz.co.ke

EMAIL ADDRESS:

info@exoticepz.co.ke

ADDRESS:

Sameer Industrial Park, UNIT 8, Road C Off Enterprise Road, Nairobi, Kenya.

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EXOTIC EPZ LTD Making Remarkable Strides Towards Ensuring Macadamia Nut Safety Exotic EPZ is a fast-rising premier macadamia nuts exporter based in Sameer Industrial Park, Nairobi Kenya. We had an interview with the company’s Operations Director, Charity Ndegwa, on their food safety and quality milestones since the company’s inception in 2017.

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COMPANY PROFILE | Exotic EPZ Ltd

G

By Catherine Odhiambo rowing up, macadamia nuts was a product deemed to be mainly for young boys and rodents.

However, years down the line, the product is considered as precious as gold in the world of

ABOVE IS THE EXOTIC EPZ LTD MANAGEMENT TEAM. FROM LEFT FRONT ROW- JANE MAIGUA, WINNIE CHIRCHIR, ALICE KAMAU, REGINA NJIHIA AND CHARITY NDEGWA FROM LEFT BACK ROW- SAMUEL CHEGE, JARED BORONGO, JORAM MUTINDA

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nut lovers.

The production of macadamia nuts in Kenya traces its history from 1944 when a European settler called Bob Harries introduced the crop from Australia in his estate near Thika town for ornamental and household consumption purposes. He would, two decades later, found Bob Harries Ltd. to invest in the widespread expansion of the crop by introducing two key macadamia types – M. Integrifolia and M. Tetraphylla – and other hybrids from Hawaii and California.

A macadamia tree isn’t just another pretty face in the landscape. When it reaches maturity, it yields an abundance of sweet, creamy nuts that demand a king’s ransom on the market today. High global demand for the crop has led to a local mad rush in its cultivation, marking the revival of the forgotten trees.

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A dynamic trio of Kenyan ladies Jane Maigua, the Managing Director, Loise Maina, Chair of the Board and Charity Ndegwa, the Operations Director, saw this opportunity and grabbed it with a goal of starting an organization that would bring healthy products from the African continent to the world, have a positive impact in the community and the environment and promote social-economic growth in the country. This marked the birth of Exotic EPZ in 2017.

“Having previously worked with smallholder farmers and especially women and understood their challenges such as inadequate support programs, access to markets and/or unstructured market systems that provide a room for exploitation of farmers, and the overall lack of women’s participation in the higher value part of the value chains, the co-founders saw the need and set out to become solution providers,” Charity, the Operations Director, told Food Safety Africa in an interview at their plant, which is based at Sameer Industrial Park on Mombasa Road in Nairobi, Kenya.

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THE COMPANY ATTAINED THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF FOOD SAFETY CERTIFICATION COVETED

BY EVERY COMPANY, THE FOOD SAFETY SYSTEMS CERTIFICATION, FSSC 22000 IN 2018.

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WORKING WITH FARMERS TO ENSURE SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION Exotic EPZ processes premier macadamia nuts destined for the export market, primarily into the US, Europe and Asian markets, considering that the world’s largest consumers of macadamia nuts are Australia and North America, accounting for about 50 per cent consumption of the produce worldwide.

The plant, which has an annual processing capacity of 360 tonnes of kernels, has a current workforce of 160 plus, 85% being women and 75% youth.

The company sources its raw materials from a network of 7,000 farmers in 11 macadamia growing counties in Kenya, which has around 200,000 small farms spread across Embu, Meru, Machakos, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, Taita Taveta, Tharaka Nithi, Baringo, Murang’a and Nyeri counties. Recently, several counties in the Rift Valley region - Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo Marakwet and Nandi counties - have joined the troop, as the area under cultivation of the crop expands across Kenya.

After flowering, the nuts take about 6-8 months to mature, the peak harvesting season being between March and July every year.

Once ready, their husks begin to dry out, lose their tackiness, and gradually change from bright green to brown. They shrink and split open, their split edges turn brown, and the brown nut inside becomes visible. To avoid harvesting unripe nuts and breaking the brittle macadamia branches, the farmers manually pluck the nuts from the tree and use a mechanical dehusker supplied by the company to get rid of the husks.

At harvest, the macadamia nuts can have a moisture content of up to 30%, which is dried down to kernel moisture content of about 1.5%. This is a crucial process to maximize product quality and shelf life. The kernel shrinks away from the shell, allowing shells to be cracked without damaging the kernel.

To curb the menace of low-quality produce from farmers, the company trains them on good agricultural practices such as pest management and harvest and post-harvest management.

“There was a time when the Kenyan macadamias had a very bad reputation in the international market mainly due to low quality standards. This, however, changed with factories investing more in their processes,”

informed Charity.

Over the last 4 years, the company has increased its annual local production capacity from 60 tonnes to 360 tonnes due to increased demand of high-quality macadamia nuts in the global markets.

QUALITY NOT AN OPTION Given the stringent demands of the export market, Exotic EPZ has to ensure the quality of every processed nut to maintain market share. It has aggregation centers across the supplying counties to aid in collection of the nuts, where the company employs the skills of government registered agents who comprehend the quality requirements to inspect the raw materials.

“We have developed a robust quality analysis process. The process involves sorting out of the visible non-conforming nuts such as those that are immature, insect damaged or are infected with mold,” says Charity.

Once the nuts arrive at the factory, they undergo a more detailed re-inspection, which involves sampling and comparison against the defined quality specifications.

The delivery vehicle is also inspected for cleanliness and the observations recorded.

In case of non-conformance, the nuts are rejected and returned to the supplier. The analysis is also counter-checked against the one conducted at the collection center for any inconsistencies.

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COMPANY PROFILE | Exotic EPZ Ltd

THEY HAVE CULTIVATED A HANDWASHING CULTURE WHEREBY EMPLOYEES HAVE TO WASH AND SANITIZE THEIR HANDS AFTER EVERY 30 MINS

After reception, the nuts are loaded into the drying bins, where the drying occurs in two phases. The first phase involves cold air blowing, where normal room temperature air is used to dry the nuts up to a moisture content of below 10%, followed by hot air blowing/heating till a moisture content of below 2% is achieved. From here the nuts are first graded into different sizes before being loaded into the cracker to expose the kernel from the brown shell. Macadamia nuts have an extremely hard shell that cannot be opened with a regular nutcracker.

“The cracked nuts then proceed to the production area for sorting. The shells and moldy nuts are separated from the kernels before sorting the remaining kernels into wholes and halves. These then proceed to the color sorter machine which distinguishes good quality nuts from bad ones,” enlightened Regina Njihia, the Quality, Environmental, Health and Safety (QEHS) Team leader, as she took the FSA team through the production process.

of the customers.

When packed in wholes, the kernels can be packed in three different styles namely Style 0 ( larger than 19mm with minimum 95% whole nuts), Style 1L (larger than 16mm with minimum 90% whole nuts) and Style 1S ( 14mm-16mm with minimum 90% whole nut).

Halves can exist in two styles: 4L(14mm16mm half nuts) and 4S (9mm-14mm with 80% half nuts and 20% whole nuts) while chips are packed in 3 styles. They include Style 5 (7mm-9mm pieces), Style 6 (5mm7mm chips & pieces) and Style 7 (3mm-5mm chips).

“The nuts are then inspected before they go for packaging. A kilogram of nuts is sampled and sorted manually to find out the percentage of insect damaged and immature nuts that can be gotten from the good quality nuts. If it’s above 1%, the nuts are taken back for resorting,” explained Regina.

Following the online analysis, the nuts are ready for packaging after they pass through a metal detector that is capable of detecting ferrous, non-ferrous or stainless-steel materials in the product. If the metal detector senses any metal contaminants, it makes use of compressed air to close the flap hence eliminating the defective nuts which are then collected in buckets. The rest of the nuts then proceed to the vacuum packaging machine.

The macadamia kernel deteriorates rapidly and requires a storage environment that is very low in moisture and oxygen. This is best achieved by a combination of gas flushing with nitrogen and partial vacuuming before sealing the pouch. The machine

GRADING TO SATISFY CUSTOMER DEMANDS From the color sorter the nuts undergo the final sorting, which is done manually to remove insect damaged, colored and immature nuts that might have not been detected by the sorting machine. The nuts are then graded into 8 different grades as either wholes, halves or chips to meet the various demands 30

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creates a vacuum within the aluminium foil packaging and then feeds in nitrogen gas as a preservative before finally sealing it.

“Our macadamia kernels are packed in 25 pounds (11.34 kg). We use food grade aluminium foil pouches flushed with food grade nitrogen gas,” said Charity.

To ascertain the integrity of the packaging material, the nuts are held overnight. In case of any deflation by morning, the nuts are repacked and a record is kept. The nuts are then stored in the chilled warehouse at a temperature of around 8 degrees Celsius as they await cartoning and dispatch.

CERTIFICATION MILESTONES At Exotic EPZ, quality is at the heart of every process and as such the company is committed to high food safety standards.

To rubber stamp this, the company attained the highest level of food safety certification coveted by every company, the Food Safety Systems Certification, FSSC 22000 in 2018.

In 2021, they received recertification; a testament of the company’s commitment to efficient, safe and robust food production and management practices that are globally trusted. To top it up, the company is ISO 9001 certified and is also registered with the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

“We have undergone training on ISO 45001- Occupational Safety Management System and ISO 14001-Environmental Management System, both of which we shall be audited and hopefully certified in 2022,” revealed Charity.

She informed us that they plan to undertake

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organic certification of their farmers and the processing factory as well as Fairtrade certification in future. Organic certification certifies that products have been produced using natural substances and processes hence having minimal environmental impact.

Organic farming is a fast-growing area in agriculture, which is a direct result of increased consumer interest in organic products. On the other hand, Fairtrade certification takes an ethical standpoint placing the producers at the forefront to promote fairness.

“These certifications will enable us to expand our products offering as well as tap into the growing premium market of sustainability conscious consumers, resulting in better value transferred to our farmers,” she pointed out.

As employees are the engines of every business, Exotic has invested in equipping all their employees with food safety and quality management skills. “One of the main things we ensure is capacity building. When people come on board, we make sure they are fully trained on the company’s activities and other aspects like leadership, financial literacy, first aid, fire safety, nutrition among other areas.

We make sure that our staff are actually holistic individuals,” says Charity.

As companies closed down amidst the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the company directors took the opportunity to virtually facilitate the training of their staff on FSSC 22000. They have cultivated a handwashing culture whereby employees have to wash and sanitize their hands after every 30 mins with the aid of automatic soap and sanitizer dispensers. The company has also installed foot pedals at the tap that curb recontamination.

“Initially we used to use hand dryers but realized that it harbored microorganisms.

So, we have moved from that to using paper towels,” explains Charity.

The quality staff conduct random hand swabbing for microbial analysis. The company utilizes an accredited third-party laboratory to carry out microbiological and chemical tests in accordance with the Kenyan standard and customer requirements.

The employees also have weekly counseling sessions on the much-needed psychosocial support.

RACE TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION

KEY NUMBERS

360 TONNES EXOTIC’S ANNUAL PROCESSING CAPACITY

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COMPANY PROFILE | Exotic EPZ Ltd Ultimate efficiency is a trait that all business owners strive for. This was no different for Exotic EPZ’s facility where sustainability has been taken into account to ensure the best use of resources.

The company has installed a 47.5Kwh solar generation plant resulting in a drastic reduction in heating costs, and best of all, a lowering of the carbon footprint. It also holds sensitization sessions for its employees and has put up signages around the factory on water and energy usage, use of LED lights to save energy, recycling of waste like the nut shells to fuel the boiler and conversion of nonconforming kernels into oils.

“We have taken our team through environmental management practices training to enhance our capacity to contribute to environmental conservation. Towards this we have put in place an Environmental Policy as part of our commitment towards environmental sustainability,” explained Charity.

FUTURE INVESTMENT PRIORITIES In terms of investment, according to Charity, the company’s main investment priorities are in product development. “We want to expand our product portfolio to include products for consumers in Kenya and Africa,” she stated.

They are looking forward to launching roasted and tasty macadamia nuts for the Kenyan market, adding that the company is also looking to break ground in new international markets.

“We are also looking to double our production capacity to 600 tonnes in the medium term as well as automate our processing line to increase efficiency and improve on the quality management process and at the same time ensure we are keeping up with the quality standards of the global market,” she noted.

In terms of raw material quality, Exotic intends to increase the farmers’ production capacity through the development of a seedlings propagation and nursery unit that will supply farmers with high quality seedlings.

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE PLAGUES THE SUBSECTOR However, with growth also comes new challenges. The Operations Director voices concern that the nuts demand may outstrip the supply available in Kenya, hence increasing 32

competition of raw materials among industry players. Statistics by Smart Farmer Kenya indicate that Kenyan farmers currently produce an estimated 41,000 tonnes in-shell nuts, constituting about 20 percent of global supply.

Production of the nuts has increased tremendously in the last decade from about 11,000 metric tonnes in 2009 to over 41,000 metric tonnes and 30 processors today, making Kenya the number three producer in the world, after South Africa and Australia.

South Africa is currently the world leader in macadamia production with 54,000 MT tonnes in-shell produced in 2021, followed

by Australia at 44,500 and Kenya. Kenya overtook the USA in 2013 and has continued holding onto its spot.

“Kenya also faces a threat from China, which has invested in planting macadamia trees. However, Kenyan farmers have adopted the planting of macadamia trees and continue to increase the area under cultivation and improving yields of existing trees.,” states Charity.

Researchers expect the global macadamia market that was valued at around USD2.99 billion in 2017 to grow to about USD4.5 billion by 2024, driven by a growing demand for natural-(plant)-based food products by an equally growing number of health-conscious consumers.

Despite the challenges, Charity is confident that Exotic EPZ will continue playing its role of ensuring a viable macadamia value chain in Kenya, while growing its products line, markets and impact on communities in which the company operates into the future.

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WE HAVE TAKEN OUR TEAM THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TRAINING TO ENHANCE OUR CAPACITY TO CONTRIBUTE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION. CHARITY NDEGWA, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, EXOTIC EPZ LTD

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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

CURRENT ROLE: Quality Manager/ Support, Unilever Ethiopia SECTOR: Food & Beverage COUNTRY: Ethiopia

EDUCATION: BSc. Industrial Chemistry – University of Nairobi PREVIOUS ROLES: Manufacturing Team Leader PET Line, Coca-cola Beverages Africa Quality Assurance Manager, Tropical Heat, Kenya

KEVIN OYWA The Unilever Ethiopia food safety systems leader who started off as a tout and aims to be a life coach FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW | Kevin Oywa

By Francis Juma

environment where my team grows organically as they proceed in their career journeys.

What are some of the most important skill sets in achieving success in your role?

Resilience, clarity of communication, tenacity, and the ability to quickly learn, unlearn and relearn are some of the key skill sets in my role.

I would also really like to put across the blank canvas approach, whereby one should always be open to learning and be willing to embrace data actively and new technologies, with a caveat as to understanding the technologies from a first principles element.

Bruce Lee said it best, ‘be like water – formless, with the ability to take shape and adapt with the changing nature around you.’

MY JOURNEY INTO THE CURRENT ROLE HAS BEEN QUITE AN UNORTHODOX ONE - GIVEN THE KICK-OFF POINT WHERE I STARTED MY CAREER JOURNEY WAS AS A MATATU/ TAXI TOUT OR REFERRED TO AS “MSEE WA SQUAD.”

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Describe your current role, key responsibilities and the most critical deliverables.

As the Quality Manager/Support for Unilever Ethiopia, my responsibilities include: • Site Quality Management - Coaching a team of quality specialists and laboratory analysts to drive the quality agenda via embedding a bottom-up quality culture throughout the entire make supply chain.

• Go-To-Market Quality Management Ensuring successful interface between Unilever customers, consumers, and the manufacturing sites, while maintaining consumer relevant quality standards in the marketplace.

• Regulatory Affairs Management Managing the interface with country regulators for Unilever FMCG products and ensuring right first-time product registration and sustenance of product licenses.

My most critical deliverables are to drive and ensure a robust system is in place that ensures all our consumers get to experience finished products that can cause absolutely no harm to them while in use and surpasses their expectations.

I also provide/foster and enable an

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How would you describe your journey to the role you are currently having? How has your childhood and growing up guided your choice for this career option?

My journey into the current role has been quite an unorthodox one - given the kick-off point where I started my career journey was as a matatu/taxi tout or referred to as “msee wa squad.” I got into this after graduating from University to create revenue so as to cater to my needs at the time and contribute to the needs of my family.

As for my childhood and how it influenced my choice into my current role, I would paint it as one where curiosity - the constant fascination of trying to understand how things work and taking it a notch further to ensure that after understanding how things work, I could then replicate the same occurrence over and over. I would probably connect the dots from the inquisitive nature that was supported in my upbringing as well as being influenced to take care of those around me and how better to do that than by ensuring whatever leaves a production line is fit for use, cannot cause harm, and designed for purpose.

What are some of the quality, food safety and compliance certifications your company has? How would you say these certifications have shaped up your company to achieve its goals?

In my previous role in the company, we were able to attain certification in line with ISO FSMS 22000:2005, and we are currently on the journey to attain FSSC 22000 Version

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5.1 certification and accreditation. We have successfully completed and passed Stage One of the audit criteria and have just undergone the Stage Two full site audit, awaiting review by the audit body as of the time of this interview, and shall be the first food manufacturer in Ethiopia to implement the system.

These certifications go a long way in embedding a culture of food safety and awareness as to what and how individual roles contribute to making the products that we manufacture safe for consumption. They also position the organization to ensure consumer expectations are always surpassed.

Unilever is consumer obsessed organisation - all decisions are made with consumer safety and satisfaction top of mind, ensuring that the organization’s purpose and vision are always clear and met throughout the chain. These certifications form the anchor for the company to deliver on its ambitious goals every day.

How does your company ensure that food safety culture is inculcated within the teams? What are some of the challenges your team and company face in ensuring compliance throughout the business?

Unilever Ethiopia has committed to ensure food safety is ingrained within the fabric/DNA throughout its manufacturing operations.

The senior leadership team has not only allocated resources to ensure that food safety and compliance is never compromised at all levels but has demonstrated visible leadership to ensure that any decisions that may have an impact on food safety are well understood and mitigated against.

We, however, are not immune to a myriad of challenges - the approach taken to overcome these challenges by the company is to ensure that gains brought in by a robust food safety culture are not eroded, but rather encouraged.

What are some of the quality, food safety and compliance challenges your company faces on a regular basis? What are some of the processes you have put in place to ensure that raw materials, in-process and end products meet your requirements?

Ensuring that our supply partners are adhering to the agreed upon parameters is a challenge that we work together to overcome

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every day.

We have employed a partnership/ collaborative approach whereby we work with our suppliers to build up their internal capability while ensuring that at our incoming inspections gate, we have deployed robust measures and set up precision equipment that are supported by qualified personnel to ensure that before any material is brought onto our manufacturing operations, they have been well assessed and qualified as fit for use or purpose.

We have also invested and deployed further controls in process that provide further mitigation points and eliminate any hazards that are present within our upstream supply chain.

Tell us about your company and how it fits in with career goals. Briefly, what is the typical day like in your role and at your company?

Unilever is a great organization to work in, as it has provided myself and others with the necessary opportunities to live and follow our purpose in our daily roles.

I get up at around 0430 hours, where I start off by reading a few pages of my newest addition to my growing library going by the title Mastery by Robert Greene. Depending on the day of the week, I would then go for a 10 kilometer run as a minimum or head to the gym, from where I leave by around 0650 hrs and head to the factory site, which is about 49 kilometers from the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Abeba (which means new flower).

At the factory, my day starts off with reviewing the previous day’s performance in line with my responsibilities, to catch up with my partners and team members. We then have an operational meeting with the Supply Chain Leadership team to align on the priorities and challenges for the day.

The bulk of the day is spent engaged on the production floor, troubleshooting as needed in different capacities within the different categories that are manufactured on site.

UNILEVER ETHIOPIA ENSURES THAT GAINS BROUGHT IN

BY A ROBUST FOOD SAFETY CULTURE ARE NOT ERODED, BUT RATHER ENCOURAGED, HENCE OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

What have been some of the previous roles before the current one? How important were those roles in shaping your current role?

In my career journey, I have had various roles such as Environmental Impact Assessment

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EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW | Kevin Oywa

THROUGH VARIOUS EXPERIENCES, MY BELIEF IS THAT FOR ONE TO EXPERIENCE MORE IN THEIR CAREER JOURNEYS, THEY SHOULD BE OPEN TO EMBRACING DIFFERENT OPPORTUNITIES/ CHALLENGES THAT HAD PREVIOUSLY NOT BEEN AVAILABLE

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Auditor, Casual Daily Rated Laborer, Quality Control Analyst, Incoming Raw and Packaging Material Analyst, Microbiologist, Warehouse Quality Controller, Manufacturing Team Leader, Quality Assurance Manager, Quality Specialist Systems, Quality Specialist Measurement And Testing, Production Manager Beauty and Personal Care Category, Acting Regulatory Affairs Manager, Quality Support Ethiopia.

My journey have been quite unorthodox, which kicked off with me being a matatu tout after which I joined an environment auditing firm working on two railway line projects: the Makadara terminal point and the Imara Daima railway terminus in Nairobi. When that contract ended, I went back to being a tout for a period, during which I sort out an opportunity to join Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) as a casual daily rated laborer.

At CCBA, I really got to appreciate the actual meaning of teamwork, paying it forward and especially being your sisters/ brother’s keeper. I say this because working as a daily rated casual laborer my role was primarily to crate filled beverages that were getting off the line as well as palletize finished crates. We would also maintain the orderliness around the production area. This fostered an appreciation for the fundamentals for cleanliness and fanned my passion for manufacturing as a whole - the conversion of ordinary raw and packaging materials into value added finished goods that delight consumers regardless of the sector you are playing in was born during this time.

Describing this experience as hard work, for lack of a better term, is an understatement, given the nature of the activities - we had to support each other, be able to pick up when a colleague was fatigued, know when and how to ask for support as well as taking breaks to recharge, while not hindering the production output. I credit this experience as the clearest example that we are not to be defined by our given “titles” but rather, we are so much more.

I was in this role for approximately nine months thereabouts after which I met my first coach, who gave me the opportunity to interview for a position of Quality Controller, which I am always grateful for and indebted given the fact that she took a chance on me without prior experience. After a successful interview, I joined the quality assurance department, where I got to delve into the full

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spectrum of what quality is all about - from frontline quality control to quality assurance.

By the time I left the organization, I had transitioned into production management as a Manufacturing Team Leader.

On leaving CCBA, I joined Tropical Heat Limited as the Quality Assurance Manager and Food Safety Team Leader, which provided me with the much needed experience to successfully implement ISO 22000:2005 (First Version), go through a recertification audit as well and embed the necessary systems to ensure food safety was paramount and viewed as a culture and a catalyst for operational improvement, rather than the traditional and at times archaic perspective of an audit entity whose value is not well understood and appreciated.

During my tenure we moved to a larger site and though quite the intimidating project, we were successfully able to move all operations into the new site and setup in line with the necessary food safety considerations, with great gains in terms of operational efficiency.

This experience greatly influenced my views and allowed me to form a deeper understanding and appreciation of how to build up a robust system capable of providing adequate measures and controls to ensure a thriving food safety culture.

What have been the key turning points in your career? Have you ever had a change in career direction? If so, how did you handle the change? What lessons did you derive from this change?

I have had several pivot changes in my career and when I think about it, they all influenced me in different ways. Through various experiences, my belief is that for one to experience more in their career journeys, they should be open to embracing different opportunities/challenges that had previously not been available.

I would have to say the biggest lessons derived from change is to be malleable and open.

“Stay committed to your decisions but stay flexible in your approach.” – Tony Robbins “Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them.” – General Colin Powell What makes your role interesting? What do you enjoy most about your role? What has FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

been the role of mentors and family in the achievement of your professional goals?

What makes my role interesting is the fact that no single day is similar, regardless of the sector one is operating in. Every day presents a new opportunity to grow, stretch yourself and impact your world, I relish the opportunity that I get to experience this aspect every day.

My mentors have been the lighthouse/ north star that have really helped me judge whether I am on the right path towards my personal goals. I have several mentors, both professional and personal, who provide guidance and the necessary sounding boards when called upon.

What challenges do you face in delivering on your current role and how do you overcome them?

My biggest challenge has been in embedding first principles in regard to food safety to everyone, at all the levels in the business.

This is being worked on through continuous engagement sessions with the Leadership team on site and more so the teams that deliver on the production floor.

However, it does help that I am working on my Amharic and Oromifa dialect, as these are the languages that are predominately in use at the plant.

How do you wind down after a hard day at work? What are your personal hobbies?

How do these hobbies contribute to your personnel and professional development?

After a hard day, I tend to try and ease into the evening by either preparing a decent cup of tea and then would disassemble and reassemble my bike, get a few pages of my current read done – Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter - play some games on my PlayStation, catchup on my podcasts and review restaurants/ eateries.

The hobby that resonate fully with me is my love for the outdoors: mountain climbing, cycling and triathlons. Just this past month of February 2022, I have been able to run 215 kilometers at the time of this interview.

These hobbies have helped me build resilience that is very necessary for my personal and professional well-being. The hobbies I have taken on require a lot of inner belief in my own abilities and stretches my capabilities to the limit, but then again there is nothing as serene as the sunrise on the peak

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of Mount Kenya as well as the realization that we are inherently quite small and miniscule beings when you sky dive off a plane! They bring to the forefront the humility required to stay hungry for more knowledge and experiences.

How can young people who may aspire to a career choice like yours plan their journey? What advice would you give them to succeed in their careers and life?

For all those starting off in their career or would like to pursue one within the food safety space, I would advise that you keep on reading and updating yourself on the latest information around food safety.

Personally, I have just enrolled in a course on food safety that has been developed by the International Food Protection Training Institute, which is an initiative of the Global Food Protection Institute, driving the adoption of food protection policies and practices for a safer global food supply.

Developed in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the training meets established U.S. federal food safety standards.

What would you want to accomplish in your career before you step away from the industry? What else would you want to do in the future?

When it comes to accomplishments, it would be great to leave a lasting imprint regarding the food safety culture throughout the continent, whereby it becomes commonplace and robust throughout all manufacturing processes especially within the African continent.

As for my future aspirations that I am working on, I shall be a Life Coach in future

I HAVE JUST ENROLLED IN A COURSE ON FOOD SAFETY THAT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED

BY THE INTERNATIONAL FOOD PROTECTION TRAINING INSTITUTE, WHICH IS AN INITIATIVE OF THE GLOBAL FOOD PROTECTION INSTITUTE

THIS COULD BE YOU!!

Want to share your journey with us? Reach us at: info@fwafrica.net MARCH/APRIL 2022 | FOOD SAFETY AFRICA MAGAZINE

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TRANSPARENCY IN FOOD LABELLING Consumers demand for greater transparency in food labelling intensifies amid Covid-19 pandemic 38

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T

TOPICAL FOCUS | Transparency

By Catherine Odhiambo ransparency emerged as one of the top trends in 2021, as more and more consumers become increasingly concerned about the composition of the foods they get off supermarket shelves.

A survey by Nielsen in 2018 showed that 67% of the consumers want to know everything that goes into the food they buy. Since the pandemic, consumers are spending more money on their meals at home and are more conscious about the origin of the ingredients, how healthy the food is and its ecological footprint.

An Innova Consumer Survey also indicates that 85 percent of consumers globally say information on what is in their food is of major importance to them. Similarly, 59 percent want to know where their food comes from and how it is made.

Interest in transparency was found to be highest in emerging markets, most likely because transparency is already more advanced in developed countries.

Access to information through social media and online is increasing in emerging markets, further driving demand for transparency. The COVID-19 crisis also appears to have intensified consumer interest in transparency and responsible production, and this is likely to persist going forward. Throughout the pandemic, consumers have retained an affinity with brands that can build trust, provide authentic and credible products and create shopper confidence in the current and post-COVID climate.

CLEAN LABEL EXPANDS ITS SCOPE As demand for transparency continues to grow, consumers have attached great importance to clean label claims which is also evolving to encompass areas beyond the product itself into the ethical and environmental factors surrounding production.

“We see claims related to human and animal welfare and increased focus on supply chain transparency and plant-powered nutrition as well as sustainable sourcing,” details Innova.

CONSCIENTIOUS CONSUMERS ARE CHECKING LABELS FOR INGREDIENTS THAT THEY PERCEIVE AS CLOSER TO NATURE Additionally, there has been a shift in focus from claims covering health aspects such as natural, organic, additive-free and nothing artificial, into areas such as GMO-free and minimally processed. The industry is also seeing more interest in real and recognizable, shorter

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ingredients lists as well as dairy and meat alternatives while fat, salt reduction remain important. Sugar content is also a factor, especially as the keto movement, which emphasizes reducing carbohydrates, continues to grow.

The expectation that food labels should provide greater transparency around the product lifecycle is also driving demand for greater clarity on what goes into food, the essence of clean label, and prompting consumers to seek more information about where ingredients come from. This is driving interest in locally sourced ingredients as consumers are keen on the country of origin on food and drink labels.

Today’s consumers do their research before purchasing products and many look for those with ingredients that sound natural and are sourced ethically. Brands that are able to offer fewer or more naturally sounding ingredients, as opposed to chemical ones and are backed by ecoethical sourcing transparency, are likely to perform well in this space with consumers.

The desire for sustainability and traceability is closely tied to the clean-label trend. Conscientious consumers are checking labels for ingredients that they perceive as closer to nature. ADM Outside Voice research finds 69% of consumers say simple, recognizable ingredients influence their purchasing decisions.

Other emerging trends in this space include knowing that ingredients are sustainably sourced and responsibly produced, perhaps with upcycling to help the planet. For manufacturers, this means becoming more transparent about the supply chain.

“Looking ahead, climate neutral schemes could make a bigger impact, while a new logo for upcycled foods is also likely to bring the idea of tackling food waste to the fore,” says Lu Ann Williams, global insights director at Innova Market Insights.

In research among European consumers undertaken

by ClimatePartner, half of respondents agreed that carbon

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TOPICAL FOCUS | Transparency emissions of a product are a factor in their purchasing decision, and 74 percent regard ClimatePartner’s own climate-neutral label as a decision-making aid when shopping. Forty percent also recognized the label as an indication that the company responsible for the product is undertaking broader activities to combat their climate impact.

Ingredion’s ATLAS study looked into the most important claims from food and beverage producers to North American consumers. The top-ranked claims (>79%) when purchasing a food or beverage product were, made with fresh ingredients, made only with recognizable ingredients and ‘natural. The next level of claims important to consumers (70%-79%) were no artificial ingredients/ no preservative, naturally sourced, contains sustainable sourced ingredients and locally sourced ingredients. The next tier of claims that consumers valued included nonGMO, organic and no-additives.

TECHNOLOGY: A KEY ENABLER OF TRANSPARENCY The importance of technology in improving transparency cannot be emphasized enough. Blockchain technology continues to take this ambition further, functioning as an “immutable” supply chain record. The technology has aided suppliers in tracking expansive food chains,

50 PERCENT OF CONSUMERS SAY THAT THEY ARE AT LEAST SOMEWHAT LIKELY TO CHECK A QR CODE IF IT APPEARS ON A PACK. THE ADOPTION OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR CAN HELP AFRICAN COUNTRIES “LEAPFROG” TO THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION INNOVA including individual animals in a livestock herd, rainforestpositive coffee and sandwich ingredients.

Crypto-labelling which is based on the blockchain uses a secure communication technology to create a record which traces the history of a specific food from farm to fork. This avails consistent records with no duplication, a certification registry, and easy traceability. On the consumer end, all that’s required is a smartphone to scan 40

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and read the crypto-labels which will enhance traceability.

According to the Innova research, 50 percent of consumers say that they are at least somewhat likely to check a QR code if it appears on a pack. The adoption of blockchain technology in the agricultural sector can help African countries “leapfrog” to the fourth industrial revolution.

Countries abroad continue to embrace the technology amidst the pandemic while in Africa, it’s still in the nascent stages of development.

FOOD MANUFACTURERS IN ACTION Food businesses are beginning to act on this consumer demand in a proactive manner.

To demonstrate how bakers can bring it all together, Cargill created its Sustainable Cookie Concept. Made with RSPO-certified palm oil, responsibly sourced chocolate chips, sustainably produced stevia, and traceable pea protein.

The cookie showcases Cargill’s sustainability capabilities across ingredients and supply chains, explains Gretchen Hadden, marketing communications manager, Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate North America.

Cargill is beginning to see an increased proliferation of baked goods infused with ingredients designed to give a nutritional boost “Due to changing perceptions from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are now much more likely to pay attention to individual ingredients in their foods and beverages,” says Timo Nieraese, senior area sales manager at Lecico GmbH, Hamburg, Germany.

He points to the International Food Information Council’s (IFIC) 2021 Food & Health Survey, in which 54% of the

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American adults surveyed said that it was important that the ingredients didn’t have ‘chemical-sounding’ names. And 31% of those surveyed said sustainability influences their food/beverage selection.

According to Westchester, Ill.based Ingredion Incorporated’s proprietary 2020 ATLAS clean-label research, 80% of North American consumers read the ingredient list on the back of the package, as well as the claims and descriptors used on the front or side, says Ivan Gonzales, Director of Marketing, Dairy, U.S/ Canada.

The rising interest in the environmental impact of food is also pushing demand for traceable ingredients higher.

Players in the coffee industry are responding to calls for greater transparency around the origins of their beans by teaming up with tech companies. Scientific traceability company, Oritain, has joined forces with importer and distributor Mercanta, The Coffee Hunters, to establish a global coffee database in order to add what it calls a “forensic” level of traceability to the world’s coffee.

Elsewhere, the Dutch retail giant

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HEMA said it will begin using the platform Farmer Connect to create greater transparency around its coffee range using blockchain technology, which is better known for underpinning cryptocurrency technology.

Food giant Unilever shows that even juggernauts can change direction, by opening up its Climate Transition Action plan process.

Heineken is increasingly showcasing the sustainability journey of their ingredients, such as the apples used in their cider.

Europe’s leading food transparency blockchain, Connecting Food recently assisted Mondelez International to launch their first food transparency project in the United States, with the iconic cracker brand Triscuit. By scanning the QR code on the Triscuit box, consumers can discover the crackers’ entire journey from the farm to their home, via a web app using their smartphones.

Businesses like The Ethical Butcher provide QR codes on the meat they sell, which consumers can scan to get the story of the farm the meat came from and the people involved in its production.

KEY NUMBERS

67% PERCENTAGE OF INGREDIENT CONSCIENCE CONSUMERS With consumers increasingly looking for information about how their food is produced, fine food independents- high quality, luxury, or gourmet food businesses- are in a strong position to benefit from the demand for transparency and traceability, thanks to their short supply chains and their relationships with local producers.

In the age of transparency, smaller businesses are advantaged due to their shorter supply chains, local sourcing, and overall a smaller operation making it easier to be fully transparent about how their products

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TOPICAL FOCUS | Transparency products.

In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has stretched its labelling regime to restaurant chains operating in multiple states, obligating them to furnish consumers with information about food items displayed on their menus, like the calorific value, allergen details, nutritional information and health warnings.

This includes e-commerce food business operators who are expected to publish the information on their portals.

The provision encompassing restaurant chains has been incorporated into the newly enacted 2020 Food Safety and Standards labelling and display regulations. are made, what they’re made out of, and how they’re kept safe on the way to store shelves.

REGULATIONS ON LABELLING A couple of years ago, legislation was put in place in most countries regarding clear label information and food safety. Examples are FSMA in the US and Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in the EU for food safety and recalls.

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011.

The FSMA has given the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new authorities to regulate the way foods are grown, harvested and processed.

From 1 October 2021, the requirements for prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) food labelling changed in Wales, England, and Northern Ireland. Prepacked for direct sale or PPDS is food which is packaged at the same place it is offered or sold to consumers and is in this packaging before it is ordered or selected.

The Food Safety Agency (FSA) has introduced the requirement for full ingredient labelling with allergens information emphasized on PPDS -popularly known as ‘Natasha’s law’, following the death of teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse from an allergic reaction caused by a prepacked baguette which, at the time, did not require allergen labelling.

The new labelling will help protect consumers by providing potentially life-saving allergen information on the packaging. Businesses that produce PPDS food need to have accurate information from their suppliers in order to label their products correctly.

The FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Office of Food Policy and Response (OFPR) released a list of draft and final guidance topics to be completed within the next 12 months. One of the documents that the Agency plans to issue is a draft guidance on the labeling of plant-based milks.

The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) recently ordered bread manufacturers to disclose full information on the product shelf life and clearly specify the vitamins and minerals used in the claimed fortification of their 42

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OPPORTUNITY TO IMPRESS Brands are in a position to develop long-term relationships with current customers while also capturing market share from competition by offering complete product transparency. However, offering data at a granular level is often easier said than done for brands. Many companies do not possess information to this extent; or, if they do, they find it difficult to change the operational status quo.

“Consumer demand for traceability across the supply chain offers opportunities to differentiate products, improve transparency and freshness, and safeguard brand provenance. Traceability and transparency in the food industry are the foundations to building consumer trust and the Covid-19 virus impact on trade routes and supply chains has accentuated this even more,” a report

by KPMG Australia states.

NATASHA’S LAW WILL HELP PROTECT CONSUMERS BY PROVIDING POTENTIALLY LIFESAVING ALLERGEN INFORMATION ON THE PACKAGING The solution for brands lies with third-party service providers that transform basic product information — such as the Nutrition Facts Panel and on package marketing claims — into smart attributes such as detailed nutrients and allergens. These attributes combine to create a profounder understanding of a product set and can be easily customized to meet any retailer, industry or government initiative. Once a brand transforms its data by breaking it down into its most basic elements, the ability to customize data sets is infinite.

Another central part of transparency is third party verification schemes which provide confidence that the claims contained in the packaging are verified and true.

Consumers will remain loyal to brands that provide easy access to trustworthy product information.

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HPLC TECHNOLOGY Revolutionizing Analytical Chemistry In The Food Industry FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

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TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHT | HPLC

W

By Catherine Odhiambo hen HPLC was “discovered” over 50 years ago, it stirred up the field of analytical chemistry. Since then, it has become a commonplace technology in the analysis of food products, among many other applications.

Before any food product hits the market, it undergoes several quality and safety checks, one of them being chromatography. Quality control experts apply chromatography in the separation of mixtures, examination of the product for contaminants that could lead to bacterial spoilage, chemical compounds like pesticide residues and food additives such as colorants, preservatives, antioxidants, artificial flavorings and sweeteners.

As food additives became more common, the Food Additives Amendment Act of 1958 gave the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the jurisdiction to regulate food additives. To this end, food companies were obligated to verify they were complying with regulations by using various technologies – one of them being chromatography.

High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is a chromatographic technique used to separate, identify and quantify components in liquid samples. It is widely accepted as an invaluable technique for the analysis of many food components. In many instances HPLC methods have replaced laborious analyses and, in general, the chromatographic methods are more specific and precise, coupled with a significant reduction in analysis times.

The primary components in an HPLC system include the solvent reservoir, or multiple reservoirs, a high-pressure

pump, a column, injector system and the detector. Each component of the sample interacts differently with the adsorbent material in the chromatography columns being used, resulting in different flow rates for each component, causing them to be separated as they flow out of the column.

SELECTION OF AN HPLC SYSTEM Once a manufacturer decides to purchase an HPLC system, the next decision is to choose between HPLC or ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) as they each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

A GOAL-ORIENTED APPROACH TO CHOOSING AN HPLC SYSTEM DEMANDS THAT SOME QUESTIONS BE ASKED ABOUT THE SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE GOALS High efficiency chromatography separates the maximum number of peaks in the shortest time frame.

To do that, the choice of LC column becomes important and the system hardware must be “optimized” to allow the column to deliver that kind of performance. In general,

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UHPLC has the ability to separate sample constituents in a shorter timeframe — it is considered to be higher efficiency chromatography, owing to the use of smaller particle LC columns (1.7 to 3 µm).

Chromatographic peaks in UHPLC are narrower and sample throughput is higher. However, there are other factors which must be considered.

A goal-oriented approach to choosing an HPLC system demands that some questions be asked about the specific performance goals like the complexity of the sample analysis, key analytes to be determined, desired sample throughput and sensitivity not forgetting versatility of the system.

Based on this information the consumer might choose UHPLC because of the efficiency of the resulting separation.

For the greenhorn user, HPLC is a more robust, rugged methodology.

The robustness/ruggedness of an analytical procedure is a measure of its ability to remain unaffected by small, but deliberate variations in method parameters and further indicates its reliability during normal usage.

Because of the robustness of HPLC, a technician of limited experience could be utilized in place of the higher-experienced chemist for operation, sample preparation, and maintenance. Conversely, UHPLC demands that the highest quality solvents (UHPLC or LCMS grade) be used and that samples be religiously filtered of particulates. UHPLC, while powerful, is far less forgiving than HPLC in this regard.

Beside robustness, capital cost and operating cost for HPLC are lower - instrument cost for HPLC are approximately 20% lower than the UHPLC. The reduced operating cost include utilizing HPLC grade solvents instead of higher cost UHPLC or LCMS grade solvents. Finally, the maintenance frequency for HPLC is lower as well, resulting in a 30-50% reduction in consumables costs

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(e.g. seals, plungers, autosampler injection valve rotor & stator).

TYPES OF HPLC EQUIPMENT The types of HPLC equipment generally depend on the phase system used in the process. The following types of HPLC generally are used in analysis.

Adsorption chromatography Adsorption chromatography involves the analytical separation of a chemical mixture based on the interaction of the adsorbate with the adsorbent. An adsorbent is a substance which is generally porous in nature with a high surface area to adsorb substances on its surface by intermolecular forces.

Some commonly used adsorbents are silica gel H, silica gel G, silica gel N, silica gel S, hydrated gel silica, cellulose microcrystalline, alumina, modified silica gel, etc.

The mixture of liquid gets separated when it passes over the adsorbent bed that adsorbs different compounds at different rates.

Ion pairing chromatography Ion pair chromatography helps separate charged analytes using the popular reverse phase

KEY NUMBERS

4.8% CAGR HPLC MARKET GROWTH OVER THE 2022-2027 FORECAST PERIOD chromatography.

Ion pair reagents enhance peak shape and retention time when modifying mobile phase ratios or changing stationary phase is not of much help. It is an alternative to ion exchange chromatography. It is a form of chromatography in which ions in solution can be “paired” or neutralized and separated as an ion pair on a reversed-phase column.

Mixtures of acids, bases, and neutral substances are often difficult to separate by ion-exchange techniques. In these cases, ionpairing chromatography is applied.

The stationary phases used are the

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TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHT | HPLC same reversed phases as developed for reversed-phase chromatography.

Chiral chromatography Chiral chromatography is a collection of techniques used to separate the enantiomers of a chiral compound. It can be used to analyze the ratio of the enantiomers present in a sample or preparatively to isolate samples of the individual enantiomers.

It involves passing a mobile phase which in this case is liquid, over a chiral stationary phase in a cylindrical column (essentially a skinny pipe). A sample of analyte is injected into the mobile phase. The two enantiomers have different affinities for the chiral stationary phase. As the enantiomers equilibrate between the mobile phase and the stationary phase, the enantiomer that bonds more strongly will spend more time on average bound to the stationary phase. Therefore it will emerge from the column later.

ION-EXCHANGE CHROMATOGRAPHY

Ion exchange chromatography involves the separation of ionizable molecules based on their total charge.

This technique enables the separation of similar types of molecules that would be difficult to separate by other techniques because the charge carried by the molecule of interest can be readily manipulated by changing buffer pH. It can be used for almost any kind of charged molecule including large proteins, small nucleotides, and amino acids. Retention is based on the attraction between solute ions and charged sites bound to the stationary phase.

THE ADVANCED I-SERIES BOASTS INCREASED PRESSURE RESISTANCE AND ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS TO SUPPORT REMOTE WORK Ions of the same charge are excluded. The use of resin (the stationary solid phase) is used to covalently attach anions or cations onto it. Solute ions of the opposite charge in the mobile liquid phase are attracted to the resin by electrostatic forces.

SIZE EXCLUSION CHROMATOGRAPHY (SEC) OR GEL PERMEATION CHROMATOGRAPHY (GPC)

Size exclusion is a chromatographic method in which molecules in solution are separated by their size, and in some cases molecular weight. It is usually applied to 46

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large molecules or macromolecular complexes such as proteins and industrial polymers.

This type of chromatography lacks an attractive interaction between the stationary phase and solute.

Sample molecules small enough to enter the pore structure are retarded, while larger molecules are excluded and therefore rapidly carried through the column. Thus, size exclusion chromatography means the separation of molecules by size.

REVERSED PHASE CHROMATOGRAPHY Reversed phase chromatography (RPC) is the most common type of HPLC separation technique and is used for separating compounds that have hydrophobic moieties and do not have a dominant polar character. It is the reverse of the normal phase chromatography in which the stationary phase is non-polar and the mobile phase is polar. An example of the mobile phase is organic solvents (methanol, acetonitrile), buffer (phosphate buffer).

Faced with growing demands for increased throughput, improved margins and more efficient processes in the industry, PerkinElmer launched the LC 300 HPLC platform to meet these needs in 2020.

The system has five available detectors, ultraprecise gradient flows, low dispersion, and new Simplicity Chrom CDS software, providing improved workflows, throughput, and usability.

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in HPLC techniques. The increasing number of contract research organizations around the world is also anticipated to fuel market growth.

The preference for HPLC over gas chromatography thanks to its reliability and accuracy gives the technology another edge in the market.

These advancements have aided in carrying out high-quality analysis that provides more accurate results in lesser time and enhances the overall convenience for the user. HPLC instrument manufacturers are also developing innovative column designs that can withstand high pressure from smaller, superficially porous particles,

IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE GLOBAL HPLC MARKET WILL CONTINUE ITS MODERATE GROWTH DURING THE NEXT FIVE YEARS MORDO INTELLIGENCE

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS DRIVE MARKET GROWTH Progress in any field is expected if not inevitable, as technology advances and as new knowledge is gained.

According to Mordo Intelligence the global HPLC market is expected to witness CAGR of 4.8% over the 2022-2027 forecast period. The primary driving factors for the growth of the market are technological advancements

which is acting as another major growth-inducing factor.

Looking forward, it is expected that the global highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) market will continue its moderate growth during the next five years.

However, we all know that with technological advancements comes the need for more competent professionals and higher costs of purchase, factors which are likely to derail the market growth over the forecast period.

The global HPLC market comprises of the following players who have invested in strengthening their product portfolio and research and development operations include Shimadzu Corporation, PerkinElmer Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Waters Corporation, Gilson, Inc., and Phenomax, Inc., Hitachi, Jasco, to name but a few.

Let’s dive into what some of them have come up with to simplify the analytical world.

ERADICATING CORROSION ISSUES IN STAINLESS STEEL HPLC HPLC separation problems caused by corroding stainless steel surfaces have been reported for the analysis of inorganic ions and proteins. Poor electrochemical detection (detection by oxidation or reduction of the sample peak) has sometimes been shown to be due to metal ion contamination found or released from stainless steel surfaces. The appearance of your HPLC’s baseline

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TECHNOLOGY HIGHLIGHT | HPLC noise is one of the most useful indicators of its overall performance and cleanliness.

To avert such defects, PerkinElmer has come up with the Next-generation Speciation Analysis Ready system engineered with a completely inert and metal-free fluid path, enabling laboratories to meet low chromatographic background requirements on the most challenging speciation applications. It has an inert HPLC pump engineered to deliver pulse-free and quiet baselines, with a fluid path that is completely metal-free and composed of inert materials. Further, it has an ergonomically designed solvent tray to reduce cavitation and store solvent bottles in an inert holder, preventing leaks or spillages from damaging the rest of the system.

In addition, Shimadzu has introduced the Nexera Bio UHPLC for biomolecule analysis as some proteins can adsorb onto the stainless-steel surfaces and high salt

THE CONCEPT OF THE INTEGRATED LC-4000 SERIES HPLC PROVIDES KEY SEPARATION PLATFORMS AT 50 MPA, 70 MPA AND 130 MPA conditions in the HPLC mobile phase resulting in corrosion.

With Nexera Bio, crucial metal-free components define the wetted surfaces while maintaining a high-efficiency flow path (66 MPa). The system is unaffected by high salt or ion pairing agents.

Analyzing polar compounds using liquid chromatography has historically been a challenge. Poor retention and peak shape, complex mobile phases that may not be MS-friendly, long equilibration times, low sensitivity, and sample derivatization are all complications that reduce lab efficiency and productivity. However, the development of a novel column that is specifically designed for the analysis of a broad range of polar compounds allows scientists to avoid these problems by taking advantage of the true power of chromatography.

The Quick Polar Pesticides Method (QuPPe-PO) is a method collection for the analysis of highly polar pesticides in food of plant origin and honey. It involves extraction with acidified methanol and Liquid Chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) measurement.

Version 12 of the QuPPe-PO Method for products of plant origin includes an approach using Restek’s Raptor Polar X column for the analysis of a wide range of polar pesticides using LC-MS/MS. The Raptor Polar X LC column was specifically designed to address the challenges of LC-MS/MS analyses 48

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of polar compounds. It provides excellent retention and separation of polar compounds through its unique hybrid phase chemistry, offering the best of hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and ion-exchange retention mechanisms, while still equilibrating quickly and using MS-friendly mobile phases. The Raptor Polar X column can quickly and easily be switched between polar retention modes by simple changes in mobile phase conditions, providing an unprecedented ability to retain and separate a wide variety of polar compounds, even in the same analysis.

AUTOMATED PROCESS MONITORING The COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated the need for a more flexible work style, driven by increased automation, while attaining consistent, high-quality results for all users.

With this need in mind, Shimadzu designed its “Advanced i-Series” liquid chromatographs which consist of the Prominence-i HPLC and Nexera-i UHPLC systems featuring pressures of 50 MPa or 70 MPa respectively and can be combined with a variety of detectors. So if your need is analyzing a large number of samples or speedily re-processing data at the comfort of your living room, then the Advanced i-Series will serve you just right.

Retaining the excellent basic functions of the compact “i-Series” instruments, the Advanced i-Series boasts increased pressure resistance and additional functions to support remote work. Both the system itself and the dedicated software enable reliable data acquisition for all users, with automation using Analytical Intelligence (AI) to replicate the handling of expert operators.

Companies like ThermoFisher Scientific and ChromSword, a leader in automation development, have also made forward leaps towards HPLC automation. The two companies have tied up to launch

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an automated high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method development system, designed to enable chromatographers to deliver robust and validated methods in less time and with higher confidence.

The Vanquish method development HPLC and UHPLC system provides an integrated, network-deployable solution for automated method development and validation for diode-array, charged aerosol and mass spectrometric detection. The system combines the Vanquish HPLC and UHPLC systems and the company’s Chromeleon

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chromatography data system (CDS) with ChromSwordAuto and AutoRobust software.

It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to minimize manual interaction and enables method creation for complete compound detection with no prior sample knowledge required.

The system incorporates multiple detection capabilities, while the integrated Chromeleon Data Vault is designed to reinforce data integrity and compliance.

CHROMATOGRAPHIC RETENTION TIME REPRODUCIBILITY Are you looking for a rugged, reliable and modern HPLC system that can run established HPLC methods regardless of the brand of liquid chromatograph on which they were originally developed, while at the same time preserving the chromatographic retention time reproducibility of those methods?

Well, Waters Corporation has got your back.

Waters Corporation has introduced the Waters Arc HPLC System, a new high-performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) for routine testing in the food market.

Retention time (RT) is a measure of the time taken for the solute to pass through a chromatography column. It is calculated as the time from injection to detection. The RT for a compound is not fixed as many

factors can influence it even if the same GC and column are used.

The system offers ultra-low analyte carryover, superb injection precision and backpressure tolerance to 9,500 psi at 5.0 ml/min. It is designed to meet all the requirements of a topof-the-line HPLC system in a costcompetitive package that takes routine testing to the next level.

In October 2020, Jasco debuted the LC-4000 Series, the latest in a long history of innovative HPLC systems they have developed, reaching all the way back to the start of commercial HPLC in the early 1970s.

The concept of the integrated LC-4000 series HPLC provides key separation platforms at 50 MPa, 70 MPa and 130 MPa which correspond to conventional HPLC, the increasingly popular Rapid Analysis (RHPLC) and sub 2 μm UHPLC, respectively.

WATERS ARC HPLC SYSTEM OFFERS ULTRA-LOW ANALYTE CARRYOVER, SUPERB INJECTION PRECISION AND BACKPRESSURE TOLERANCE TO 9,500 PSI AT 5.0 ML/MIN Each platform is supplied with a dedicated pump and autosampler matched to the operating pressure and all three platforms share common detectors optimized for high-speed 100 Hz acquisition and the narrow peak shapes common to both RHPLC and UHPLC. When we take a step back and reflect on this technology’s journey since inception, HPLC has undeniably made momentous contributions to the methodology of food analysis and this contribution will without a doubt increase in the future.

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KENYA DAIRY BOARD Thirst For Quality Milk Drives Kenya Dairy Board To Invest, Seek Better Sector Regulation 50

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REGULATOR HIGHLIGHT | Kenya Dairy Board

MARGARET KIBOGY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, KENYA DAIRY BOARD

M

By Catherine Odhiambo ilk, often termed as a “super food” is a common source of protein in every Kenyan household. Even though this commodity is a go-to breakfast commodity, many are not conversant with the body that ensures the milk and milk products that reach their tables are safe and of high quality.

Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) is a state corporation under the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries established through an Act of Parliament, CAP 336 of the Laws of Kenya.

During its 62 years of existence, KDB’s role has continued to evolve in line with changing government policies and priorities, spearheading development in the industry. The dairy industry is an important source of food, employment, incomes and wealth in Kenya. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) estimates that it contributes 14% of Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with an annual growth rate of 4.1% compared to 1.2% of the general agriculture sector.

While dairy farming is currently the single largest sub sector of agriculture in Kenya and an important source of livelihood to approximately 1 million small scale farmers, it has not always been so. Dairy farming goes way back to the 1900s when it was run by the colonialists. As Africans

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were also eager to have a share of the market, a committee was formed in early 1940’s chaired by the Department of Agriculture of the time, which led to the development of the Swynnerton plan of 1948 that recommended the inclusion of Africans in dairy farming.

As Joseph Stiglitz once said, we can’t function as a society without rules and regulations and the enforcement mechanism of those rules and regulations, hence as the sector expanded, and the stakeholders struggled to enhance the quality of milk and its products, the Kenya Dairy Board was birthed through an ACT of parliament CAP. 336 laws of Kenya in 1958.

HIERARCHY OF LEADERSHIP The Board consists of 14 members comprised of the Chairman and a Vice-Chairman, Managing Director and 11 Directors, all appointed by the Minister.

The Board is currently chaired by Anthony Mutugi with Sarah Boit as the Vice-chairperson and Margaret Kibogy as the Managing Director.

According to the Dairy Industry Act Cap. 336, three members of the Board are obliged to retire one year after the first appointment of members, and thereafter three members of the Board are to retire annually in rotation.

The members to retire are usually those who have served

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REGULATOR HIGHLIGHT | Kenya Dairy Board to ensure standardization, objectivity and efficiency. Non compliances are addressed through technical advisory services and other legal procedures.

On licensing, milk dealers are required to obtain relevant licenses and permits from the sector regulator.

Premises dealing with milk and milk products are first inspected to establish compliance to milk quality and safety requirements prior to licensing. Routine inspections are subsequently conducted to monitor continued compliance, of which non-compliances may lead to a revoke of the license.

incessantly for the longest time. The Board is mandated to appoint a committee to represent the interests of consumers and is also free to form such other committees as it may deem necessary, to examine and report to it on any matter whatsoever arising out of or connected with any of its functions or powers.

MANDATE OF THE BOARD According to the Managing Director, Margaret Kibogy, the board’s mandate has remained intact in its 62 years of existence, however the functions keep on evolving - all centered around quality.

Regulation is the core mandate of Kenya Dairy Board.

It involves enforcement of the Dairy Industry Act Cap. 366.

Activities undertaken include inspection and licensing of milk handling premises and surveillance on the quality and safety of milk and milk products along the dairy value chain. These aim at consumer protection and facilitation of trade.

“The board is mandated to regulate, develop and promote the Kenyan dairy industry,” Kibogy informed Food Safety Africa in an interview.

KDB carries out inspections of milk handling premises on a quarterly basis to monitor compliance with the requirements of the Dairy Industry Act Cap 336 and other public health regulations through its 27 branches and national laboratory.

“Apart from the head office based in Nairobi, we have 27 other branch offices all over the country, each under a branch manager, but mainly in the key milk producing and consumption areas. Our aim is to eventually penetrate all the 47 counties in Kenya,” said Kibogy.

As new challenges arise, the Board is moving towards risk-based inspections as opposed to conventional ones.

The inspection process is automated and well-structured

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SUPPORTING GROWTH OF THE SECTOR Supporting the development of the Kenyan dairy industry is an important mandate of the Board, which has led to Kenya becoming the leading dairy industry player in Africa.

By the end of 2021, the regulator had issued permits to 35 processors, 42 mini dairies, 132 cottage industries, 226 milk dispensers, 1,069 milk bars and 282 cooling plants across the country.

Capacity building of stakeholders and trade facilitation are some of the activities KDB undertakes to support the growth of the industry. The Board therefore takes on various activities like training, technology transfer, stakeholder organization and dissemination of dairy data and information, to build the capacity of stakeholders to increase milk production, value addition and compliance.

APART FROM THE HEAD OFFICE BASED IN NAIROBI, WE HAVE 27 OTHER BRANCH OFFICES ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, EACH UNDER A BRANCH MANAGER MARGARET KIBOGY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, KDB In addition, KDB participates in the development and review of dairy standards as a member of the Milk and Milk Products Technical Committee of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the country’s standardization body.

It has thus far established standards for all the mainstream milk and milk products and harmonized nine dairy standards at the East African Community (EAC) level.

Further, it engages in various activities to promote domestic, regional and international markets for Kenyan milk and milk products. It accomplishes this through the issuance of export and import permits for dairy produce, strengthening ties with regional dairy regulatory authorities,

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promoting adoption of school milk and participating in regional and international trade negotiations.

Through consumer education programs, KDB sensitizes consumers and the general public on the importance of consuming quality and safe milk and milk products, thereby driving demand for compliance in the dairy value chain. It also champions for increased consumption of milk and milk products for nutritional and health benefits.

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the Board donates milk to underprivileged members of the society and backs structured dairy groups to enable them comply with requirements.

NEW LABORATORY INVESTMENT In 2021, KDB launched the National

Dairy Laboratory to boost its capacity to conduct quality surveillance and safety compliance.

The operationalization of the laboratory will enhance food quality, nutritional security, increased manufacturing through processing, value addition, traceability, product diversification and market penetration, according to the MD. “Prior to establishing the lab, we faced challenges in managing the informal sector in regards to quality as we did not have the capacity to test the products. We used private labs to carry out the analysis, which are not accessible to the common person and also quite cost intensive.”

The lab is basically a regulatory lab where the board evaluates samples collected from the field and issues reports for necessary corrective action. “Eventually, we want it to become a commercial lab where other people can contract us to conduct analyses of their product samples,” she noted.

NEW REGULATIONS TO STEER DAIRY SUBSECTOR In March 2021, the Board introduced new regulations to streamline the management of the dairy industry and facilitate export of milk products

KEY NUMBERS

282 NUMBER OF COOLING PLANTS ISSUED WITH PERMITS IN 2021 to neighboring countries, replacing the old regulations of 2006.

The new regulations provide for the safety of dairy products through labeling, examination, calibration, records, storage, and distribution for the value chain actors. They also aim at enhancing consumer protection and safety of dairy produce, improving access to information on marketed dairy produce, and providing a mechanism for tracing and recall of dairy produce.

The rules, now collectively known as the Dairy Industry Regulations 2021 comprise the Dairy Industry (Registration, Licensing, Cess and Levy) Regulations, the Dairy Industry (Returns, Reports and Estimates)

KDB STAFF AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL DAIRY REGULATORY LABORRATORY

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REGULATOR HIGHLIGHT | Kenya Dairy Board

THE INAUGURAL DAIRY INDUSTRY AWARDS 2019

Regulations, the Dairy Industry (Compliance Officer) Regulations and the Dairy Industry (Produce Traceability and Recall) Regulations.

Others include the Dairy Industry (Milk Sales Contracts) Regulations, the Dairy Industry (Pricing of Dairy Produce) Regulations, the Dairy Industry (Imports and Exports) Regulations, and the Dairy Industry (Dairy Produce Safety) Regulations.

According to the MD, the Board is developing a dairy food safety manual that each dairy business operator will be required to be equipped with upon registration by the board, thereby helping towards achieving self-regulation, leading to a reduction in food safety issues in the dairy sector.

The Board is also exploring mass communication avenues that will also help create consumer sensitization and promotion of safe milk and milk products.

ANNUAL AWARD TO MOTIVATE INDUSTRY PLAYERS In 2019, Kenya Dairy Board, in partnership with the Eastern and Southern Africa Dairy Association (ESADA) debuted an Annual Dairy Industry Award scheme termed Kenya Dairy Industry Awards.

The Awards seek to identify and reward some of the value chain actors who have adopted practices and technologies to enhance good animal husbandry practices and enhance efficiency in milk collection. They also aim to recognize the efforts made in innovation and new product development, and implementation of quality assurance programs.

Details of the unique practices implemented by the winners is shared during the award ceremony to provide lessons to other value chain actors who are striving to meet the demands of a highly competitive market environment.

Adoption of best practices in the industry would enable the country to deliver dairy products to markets around the world competitively.

The awards scheme also provide a platform for sharing innovations and experiences amongst stakeholders and hence create an impetus, thereby transitioning the industry into a more productive and competitive dairy industry that 54

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meets not only local but international standards.

The Kenya Dairy Board has also implemented the County School Milk program that has currently been adopted by 7 counties in line with Chapter 4 of the Kenyan constitution, which provides children with the basic right to access basic education and nutrition. The school milk program therefore provides County Governments with the opportunity to deliver on these important constitutional mandates.

“The issue of finances is our major challenge. As such, we are trying to work very closely with the counties to offer them capacity building so that they are able to put up a budget for Early Childhood Development (ECD) as it is a devolved function,” explained Kibogy.

With the industry growing at nearly 5 percent per annum in production and 7 percent in processing and value addition as enlightened by the Managing Director, improved milk production and productivity, value addition, compliance and market access are integral to a sustainable dairy value chain. Kenya, in 2020, processed

WE ARE TRYING TO WORK VERY CLOSELY WITH THE COUNTIES TO OFFER THEM CAPACITY BUILDING SO THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO PUT UP A BUDGET FOR ECD MARGARET KIBOGY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, KDB about 684 million liters of milk, an increase of 9.5 percent from 2019.

“The dairy sector has a very huge potential for growth.

When you look at the people who are investing in the sector, you realize there are new players coming in. We even have development partners who are interested in dairy, justifying the potential it has. The logs will always be there, but we’ll always find a way of addressing them,” she remarked.

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KENYA SEEKS A MAJOR OVERHAUL OF ITS FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT MECHANISM TO BRING ORDER IN THE COUNTRY New bill seeks to create a new office to coordinate food and feed safety management in the country FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

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REGULATORY | Kenya Food & Feed Safety Draft Bill

NATIONAL VALIDATION CONFERENCE FOR THE FOOD AND FEED SAFETY DRAFT POLICY AT WESTLANDS, NAIROBI, KENYA

K

By Catherine Odhiambo

enyan consumers face numerous food safety threats such as contaminated vegetables grown along sewer lines, fresh meat with toxic chemicals, and peanut butter and maize flour brands containing aflatoxin, a naturally occurring fungus that is harmful to humans and animals.

According to a 2014 study by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya is among the world’s hotspots for aflatoxins and has recorded two major illness outbreaks, including in 2004, which resulted in 100 deaths and more than 300 cases of poisoning. A perfect illustration of the African proverb, ‘If you give bad food to your stomach, it drums for you to dance’.

Along with often-dire health consequences, contaminated food has severe economic repercussions.

A 2018 World Bank report revealed that unsafe food costs low- and middle-income economies US$110 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses each year.

While there is a felt need for strong food safety policy to address these challenges, current policies on food safety are incoherent and do not clearly define responsibilities for food safety oversight in the country. This has necessitated the need of a modern food control system with relevant and enforceable food laws and regulations.

FRAGMENTED FOOD CONTROL SYSTEM Regardless of Kenya having a myriad of regulators of food safety in Kenya, there have been lapses in enforcement.

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Moreover, the various food laws have not adequately addressed domestic food safety governance, which has had serious implications on public health protection and trade in food. Some of these laws and regulations include the Crops Act 2013, Dairy Industry Act, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service Act, 2012, Meat Control Act, Biosafety Act, Standards Act, Consumer Protection Act among others.

The fragmented food control system has 11 food safety control agencies, plus specific county governments charged with specific areas of control in the food industry- all of which operate independently to fulfill their constitutional mandates. These agencies include the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), Kenya Plant and Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), Pest Control Products Board (PCPB), Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), all working under the ministries responsible for trade, industrialization; health; livestock, fisheries and agriculture.

For harmonization purposes, the National Food Safety Coordination Committee (FSCC), which is an ad hoc committee without any legal basis, was created to help coordinate the activities of the committee, with the views on its success remaining on of the most contentious issues in the country.

According to industry stakeholders, the various regulatory agencies adopt diverse measures governing food, with these differences undermining Kenya’s FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

THE FOOD SAFETY COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT OFFICE WILL BRING TOGETHER MINISTRIES, ACTORS AND AGENCIES TO PLAN, IMPLEMENT, MONITOR AND EVALUATE FOOD AND FEED SAFETY ACTIVITIES competitiveness in international food trade and exposing citizens to risks of unsafe food, which may also impede the free movement of food internally and externally.

CREATION OF THE FOOD SAFETY COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT OFFICE The draft Food Safety policy 2021 and the Food and Feed Safety Coordination Bill currently has proposed the establishment of an office of the Food and Feed Safety Coordination. It has also urged for the setting up of the Oversight Office and County Food and Feeds safety control coordinating committees to oversee food safety at both the National and County government level.

According to the bill, the legislative role will fall on the government’s shoulders, who will review all relevant laws and regulations to be in tune with the changing food safety and food trade trends. It will also be responsible for preparing a Food Safety Act that will be responsive to national, regional and international obligations.

The Food Safety Coordination and Oversight Office will bring together ministries, actors and agencies to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate food and feed safety activities.

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This office will be manned by a food and feed safety controller whose roles are clearly spelt out on the bill.

These roles include to protect and promote human health, facilitate the orderly development of the food and feed industries as well as fair practices in food trade. The officer will also be in charge of fulfilling the country’s international obligations, especially those that arise out of its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). He/she will direct and oversee all the existing food control infrastructure and services and redefine their roles in order to eliminate areas of overlap and conflict. Further, the Controller will ensure the total destruction of all condemned food products as most often find their way back to the markets and end up with the consumers.

The Office of the Controller shall be managed by a Board comprising of a Chairperson appointed by the President, 5 Principal Secretaries from the various Ministries, a representative of the Council of Governors, two persons nominated by the Kenya Private Sector Alliance representing the Private Sector and appointed by the Cabinet Secretary and the Food and Feed Safety Controller who shall be an ex-officio

member appointed by the Board.

To qualify for this position, the officer must hold a post graduate degree in human or veterinary medicine; public health, food science, animal science, food safety, agricultural sciences or fisheries sciences or Environmental Health sciences. He/she should have at least fifteen years’ experience relating to food safety, five years’ experience in a senior management position and meet the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution.

The Controller shall hold office for a term of three years with eligibility for reappointment for a final three-year term.

COUNTY GOVERNMENT TO TAKE CHARGE OF COUNTY FOOD SAFETY At the county level, the County Governments will ensure the implementation of food safety laws and also establish the County Food Safety Coordination Committees.

They will ensure that food business operators within their counties are registered and licensed, mainstream food safety control measures in their legislation and plans and prepare and publish county food safety reports. They will also be instrumental in capacity development of both the

ONE OF KENYA’S INFORMAL MARKETS

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REGULATORY | Kenya Food & Feed Safety Draft Bill

FOOD SAFETY AGENCIES IN KENYA S/No.

Food Safety Agency

Role in Food Safety

Enabling Legislation

1

Ministry of Health

Food Safety Control and Risk Management in foods from the market to areas of consumption, export and imports

Food Drugs and Chemical Substances Act Cap 254, 242, 356 Breast Milk Substitutes Act

2

Kenya Bureau of Standards

Standardization in Food Quality and safety, metrology, conformity assessment

The Standards Act Cap 496

3

The Directorate of Veterinary Services

Inspection and Certification of Foods of Animal Origin

Meat Control Act, 356, Animal Diseases Act 364, Fertilizers and animal foodstuffs act CAP 345

4

The Kenya Fisheries Services

Ensuring the safety and quality of fish, fisheries products and fish feeds placed in the market

The Fisheries Management and Development Act 2016

5

Agriculture and Food Authority

regulation of food Safety of foods of plant origin

Agriculture and Food Authority Act Crops Act

6

Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS)

Ensuring the safety of food of plant origin in the Country, imported or exported

KEPHIS Act; Plant Protection Act 324

7

Pest Control Products Board

Regulation of the registration of pest control products on foods of plant origin and monitoring residues

Pest Control Products Act 346

8

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate

Regulating safe use of veterinary medicines including pest control products on animals

Veterinary Surgeons Veterinary Paraprofessionals Act Veterinary Medicines Regulations

9

Kenya Dairy Board

Regulating production and safety of dairy products

Dairy Industry Act CAP 336

10

County Governments

Implementing and Enforcing food safety control measures

Various Acts of Parliament and County Legislations

11

National Biosafety Authority

Regulation of the safety of genetically modified foods

Biosafety Act No.2 of 2009

12

Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority

Regulating the use of nuclear energy and radioactive substances

Nuclear Regulatory Act, 2019

13

Any other food control agency established by law

Regulate all the unregulated aspects along the food safety continuum

Several laws under Development (the Livestock Bill, Trade Bill)

food producers and food-based organizations.

The County Food and Feed Safety Control Coordinating Committee shall be the platform for consultation and cooperation among subject matter specialists in the implementation of the Multi Annual National Control Plan and assist the chairperson in the preparation of the annual county food safety report.

The Chairperson of the Committee shall in consultation 58

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and cooperation with the Food Safety Controller, coordinate the Subject matter specialists involved in the implementation of the Multi Annual National Control Plan at the county level and receive and analyze reports by the specialists and provide feedback. He/she shall also prepare an annual county food safety report to be presented to the County Executive Committee Member, the National Competent Authorities and Subject matter FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

specialists in the county.

So how does the government intend to ensure these regulations are implemented to the letter…?

MONITORING AND EVALUATION FRAMEWORK To guarantee effective implementation, the National Government together with the County Governments, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), private sector and other stakeholders, will develop monitoring and evaluation framework within six months of the policy implementation.

According to the bill, the monitoring and evaluation framework is expected to be consistent with the National Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (NIMES) and have clear terms of reference for relevant stakeholders in data collection and reporting at all levels. NIMES is a governance instrument under the Results Based Management system, designed to show transparency in the execution of policies and programs by government, civil society, private sector and development partners.

To keep it up to date, the policy will undergo periodic review to address FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

KEY NUMBERS

110B

US$

AMOUNT LOST

BY LOW AND MIDDLE INCOME ECONOMIES DUE TO UNSAFE FOOD sector challenges and emerging issues.

For the Food and Feed Safety Control Coordination Bill, the competent authorities and subject matter specialists will jointly develop a Multi-Annual National Control Plan with yearly reviews as a basis and mechanism for the control of food and feed business operators in the country.

The Multi-Annual National Control Plan shall for each competent authority and subject matter specialist performing official

control of food safety and describe a risk-based categorization of the necessary activities. It shall also describe the control systems applied in different food and feed sectors and cooperation among the competent authorities responsible for official controls in the sectors and outline a mechanism of continuously training personnel performing official controls.

In addition, it will describe a method of documenting procedures for official control and reporting and outline the organization and operation of contingency plans for foodborne or animal disease emergencies, feed and food contamination incidents and other health risks to humans, animals and the environment. For competent authorities, the Multi Annual National Control Plan will describe a procedure for cooperation with international competent authorities for mutual assistance.

To effectively implement its components of the Multi Annual National Control Plan, each Competent authority or subject matter specialist shall identify all stages where it is expected to act in its control of food or feed safety

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REGULATORY | Kenya Food & Feed Safety Draft Bill

and identify Food or Feed Business Operators, by categorization, in the context of its mandate. They shall also monitor a consumer complaints register kept by food or feed business operators.

OVERSIGHT ROLE OF THE CONTROLLER As stated by the draft bill, the Food and Feed Safety Controller shall then verify that each Competent Authority has put in place mechanisms for regulatory activity of enforcement to provide consumer protection and ensure that all food or feed during production, handling, storage, processing and distribution (farm to fork) are safe, wholesome and fit for human consumption and conform to food safety and quality requirements. He/she will carry out inspections, sampling and analysis, examine records, issue regulatory permits and licenses, ensure staff health and hygiene and investigate compliance with the requirements of the relevant Acts, Regulations, and guidelines.

The Competent Authorities shall put in place measures to ensure that routine food controls performed at the level of Food or Feed Business Operators for imported, exported or re-exported foods/feeds are planned, managed and implemented in a way that ensures safety of the food or feed products placed on the market.

In the absence or inadequacy of such measures, the Food and Feed Safety Controller shall make recommendations for immediate action by the Competent Authority. Such measures shall be gazetted by the Cabinet Secretary after recommendation by the Controller subsequent to consultation with the County Governments, Competent Authorities and relevant stakeholders.

In regards to food control audits, the Controller may recognize any organization or agency for the purposes of conducting a food safety audit and for checking compliance with food safety management systems required under this Act. To ensure authenticity of food quality control labs, only designated laboratories shall do 60

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official analyses for food and feed safety control.

In the past poor coordination and enforcement of existing legislation and standards has prevailed, leading to poor implementation of food policy and legislation – an issue the new policy aims to counter, the bill notes.

For effective coordination purposes, a subject matter specialist shall share reports of implementation of its components of the Multi Annual National Control Plan with the subject matter specialists it works closely with and the head of the relevant Competent Authority who shall analyze the reports and provide feedback, as appropriate.

The Competent Authority shall then share its reports

THE CONTROLLER WILL ENSURE THE TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF ALL CONDEMNED FOOD PRODUCTS AS MOST OFTEN FIND THEIR WAY BACK TO THE MARKETS AND END UP WITH THE CONSUMERS with the other Competent Authorities it closely works with and the Office of the Food and Feed Safety Controller. In turn, the Controller will analyze the reports and provide feedback, followed by an annual report on the State of Food and Feed Safety in Kenya which it will share with the Cabinet Secretary and the Competent Authorities.

Even as the policy strives to provide an official food safety control system both at the National and County levels, the responsibility of food safety still rests with all players along the food chain, notes the document.

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FOOD SAFETY CHALLENGES IN MAIZE MEAL Codex specifications on maize composition and quality FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

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PRODUCT FOCUS | Maize Meal

M

By Catherine Odhiambo alawians have a popular saying ‘chimanga ndi moyo’ which translates to ‘maize is life’, and indeed it is, particularly in the African continent where it’s milled to make flour for the renowned ugali in both Kenya and Tanzania, nsima in Malawi or pap as South Africans term it.

Maize was introduced to Africa from the Americas between the 16th and 17th century. Before this, sorghum and millet were the staple cereals in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Maize was readily accepted by African farmers as its cultivation was very similar to that of sorghum but with significantly higher yields. Eventually, maize displaced sorghum as the primary cereal in all but the drier regions.

Since maize is the primary cereal in most African countries, it is vital that any food safety concerns are identified so that appropriate control steps can be taken to thwart human health hazards. Thus far, the major health concerns related to milled maize are contamination with pesticide residues and aflatoxins.

FEW CODEX MRLS EXACERBATE PESTICIDE MENACE Farmers worldwide rely on pesticides to protect their crops against plant pests and increase yields, which is essential for livelihoods and food security. However, these pesticides often cause trade issues for developing countries agri-food exports since the local Maximum 62

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Residue Limits (MRLs) differ from international food safety standards set by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission. When importing countries set their own lower limits, it greatly increases the costs and complexity of trade.

In 2010 a consignment of maize imported to Kenya was found to contain high levels of Aluminum phosphide, a fumigant used to control fungal growth during shipping.

The maize was rejected and reshipped back to the country of origin. This incident did underscore the need to monitor maize for chemical contaminants to safeguard human health.

As developed countries phase out second and thirdgeneration pesticides, farmers in Africa have little choice but to use older chemicals because there are few Codex MRLs for newer, less toxic pesticides for their specialty crops. Residue data to establish MRLs and support new product registrations are very rarely generated in developing countries because of increased costs and expected lower profit margins.

The commonest storage pesticides applied as dusting powders are pirimiphosmethyl, an organophosphate (OP) compound mixed with Permethrin, a pyrethroid also known as Actellic. Other dusts powders include malathion (OP), permethrin (pyrethrin), fenitrothion (0p) and fenvalerate (pyrethrin). While these pesticides are used to prolong storage and control pest infestation during storage, no data is available of the residue levels of these pesticides.

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It is possible to use most of the approved agricultural chemicals with little food safety impact, provided good practices are used. Nevertheless, investigations need to be undertaken to ascertain if these practices are being actively followed in the production chain.

MYCOTOXINS A HUGE ECONOMIC AND HEALTH HAZARD Maize is susceptible to fungal growth and mycotoxin contamination and this is favored by high temperatures, high humidity as well as other factors such as grain damage by birds or insects, poor postharvest handling, and storage.

The International Food Policy Research Institute reports that on average, 26,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa die of liver cancer every year through chronic aflatoxin exposure.

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungi that contaminate food with far-reaching consequences on human and animal health in addition to causing huge economic losses. Regulatory limits offer a guarantee to consumers that the food will not contain toxins in concentrations that are harmful to their health. The first mycotoxin regulations were set in the late 1960s.

As stated by Carlos A. Campabadal, PhD, IGP Institute, Kansas State University, currently there are only two mycotoxins that are known to be produced during grain storage. These two mycotoxins are aflatoxins and ochratoxins that are produced by molds from the Aspergillus family. The rest of the known mycotoxins are produced in the field during the growing phase of grain.

In 2004 aflatoxin contamination of maize occurred in

Kenya resulting in 125 deaths. It was observed that the concentration of aflatoxin B1 in maize was as high as 4400 parts per billion (ppb) while the total aflatoxins ranged from 1 ppb to 46,400 ppb which is far greater than the acceptable limit of 5 ppb for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and 10 ppb total aflatoxins set by East African Community (EAC) countries.

Kenya’s regulatory watchdog, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has in the past recalled several maize flour brands over contamination with aflatoxin. The country earlier in March 2021 banned the importation of maize from its neighboring countries, Tanzania and Uganda citing high levels of aflatoxin.

FARMERS IN AFRICA HAVE LITTLE CHOICE BUT TO USE OLDER CHEMICALS BECAUSE THERE ARE FEW CODEX MRLS FOR NEWER, LESS TOXIC PESTICIDES FOR THEIR SPECIALTY CROPS Codex has not been able to formulate an internationally acceptable maximum level (ML) for aflatoxin in maize since there is a huge difference in perceived risks, food consumption patterns and the levels of aflatoxin contamination in food produced from different agroecological regions.

Countries or regions have been left to formulate their own national or regional MLs. The United States has a 20 ppb and EU a more stringent ML of 4 ppb for total aflatoxins in food.

In developing countries, MLs for total aflatoxins range from 10 to 20 ppb, with 10 ppb being the most frequent.

The East African Community (EAC) partner states use an ML of 10 ppb for total aflatoxins in selected foods, cereals, and pulses, which is an EAC-adopted standard as no risk assessment has been done to ascertain the safe level of aflatoxin.

Furthermore, the EAC has not developed a food control system and enforcement mechanism.

MILLERS “UNABLE” TO ELIMINATE PATHOGENS Compounding the challenges for the industry is an inability to “flip a switch” in milling to eliminate pathogens.

The unsuited storage facilities of grains, as well as the wet transformation process, including the unnecessary prolonged tempering and the poor hygienic handling of the flours affect the final product.

Furthermore, it has been shown that enterococci and

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PRODUCT FOCUS | Maize Meal coliforms are considered as hygiene indicators in the manufacturing process of foods.

Therefore, to avoid food borne illnesses due to enterococci and coliforms, milled maize must be prepared with good manufacturing practices and good conditions of storage. Detection of a high microbial count for yeast and moulds points to improper postharvest and storage handling of the maize grains. The residue built up in milling machines as well as the wet process used can be relevant as additional sources of microbial contamination of commercial samples. Therefore, storage conditions such as relative humidity of atmosphere must be critical control points during processing of maize.

DEALING WITH SECTOR CHALLENGES In line with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the basic food safety concept is that food will not harm the consumer so long as the intended user guidelines are followed when it is prepared.

Conversely, food is potentially harmful whenever it has been exposed to hazardous agents and the intended use guidelines have not been followed hence the need to come up with interventions to ensure the prevalent safety threats are nipped at the bud.

A global aflatoxin proficiency testing program grew out of the initial work in Kenya through the Aflatoxin Proficiency Testing and Control in Africa (APTECA) program. In 2014, milling companies were approached by AgriLife, a unique education agency that provides programs, tools, and resources that teach people improved agriculture and food production, personnel and asked to run a known maize flour sample and report their results. Unfortunately, only 20% of the initial participants in the program were satisfied with their laboratory’s aflatoxin test results. To address this deficiency, beginning in 2016, AgriLife teamed up with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to implement the proficiency testing program in laboratories around the world, including Africa. At the moment, over 200 labs from 62 countries are participating in the program which received ISO accreditation in 2017.

When it comes to shelled maize, the moisture and temperature should be monitored as high levels of moisture and temperature, together with damage to kernels, are the chief reasons for the growth of moulds. Mould growth is negligible when maize moisture content is below 13%.

Wet maize should be dried to a temperature of 12-14% as the surest way of limiting mould growth.

If wet maize is held at moisture levels above 20% without even a little drying, the temperatures should be maintained as low as possible under some form of aeration or maximum ventilation maintained.

Millers should also employ caution in blending lots of maize that differ substantially in either quality or moisture content. They should not blend maize of 20 percent moisture with 10 percent maize in the notion that the 64

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mixed batch will equalize overall at 15 percent. It will not unless the mixing is unusually thorough.

After the maize has been dried to a moisture level adequate for storage, sufficient air flow should be provided to bring the maize to a uniform temperature. Millers should check maize regularly for moisture, heat, mold, insects or off odors and adhere to good sanitation practices, good insect control, and disease control practices.

ESSENTIAL COMPOSITION AND QUALITY FACTORS: CODEX SPECIFICATIONS As with any processed food in the continent, there are various standards laid out by the Codex Alimentarius that each maize miller has to adhere to. The Codex Alimentarius or “Food Code” is a collection of internationally adopted food standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. While being recommendations for voluntary application by members, Codex standards serve in many cases as a basis for LIMIT OF CONTAMINANTS AND TOXINS (WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME)

No

Contaminant And Toxin Limit

1

Arsenic (As)

0.10 ppm max

3

Lead (Pb)

0.10 ppm max

5

Mercury (Hg)

0.01 ppm max

Heavy Metal 2 4

Copper (Cu)

Cadmium (Cd)

Pesticide Residues

2.0 ppm max

0.02 ppm max

6

Carbamate

< 10ppb

8

Organophosphorus

< 10ppb

7 9

Organochlorine Pyrethroid

< 10ppb

Crotolaria (Crotolaria spp.)

Free

Toxic Or Noxious Seeds 10 11 12 13

< 10ppb

Corn cockle (Agrostemma githago L.)

Free

Castor bean (Ricinus com- Free munis L.) Jimson Weed (Datura spp.) Free

Radiation 14

Radiation

10 Bq/Kg max.

15

Aflatoxin (total B1+B2+G1+G2)

20 ppb max.

Mycotoxins

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KEY NUMBERS

26000 ANNUAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN AFRICA WHO DIE OF LIVER CANCER DUE TO AFLATOXIN EXPOSURE national legislation.

International milling standards differentiate maize flour from maize meal by granulation size, with maize meal consisting of larger, less refined particles. As defined by these standards, what is commonly referred to as maize meal in many African countries is actually maize flour.

Codex stipulates that maize meal should be safe and suitable for human consumption: free from abnormal flavours, odours, insects and filth.

The maximum moisture content for milled maize is 15.0% m/m with lower moisture limit requirements for certain destinations in relation to the climate, duration of transport and storage.

Milled maize should be free from heavy metals in amounts which may represent a hazard to human health and comply with maximum pesticide residue and mycotoxin limits established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission for this commodity. The MRL for Paraquat, Penthiopyrad, and Phorate pesticides is 0.05mg/kg while that for Propargite is 0.2mg/kg and 0.1mg/kg for Sulfuryl Flouride. The milled maize products shall not exceed total aflatoxin of 10 μg/kg and 5 μg/kg for aflatoxin B1 when tested in accordance with ISO 16050.

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It is recommended that the product covered by the provisions of this standard be prepared and handled in accordance with the appropriate sections of the General Principles of Food Hygiene (CXC 1-1969) and other Codes of Practice recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission which are relevant to this product.

To the extent possible in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), the product shall be free from objectionable matter. When tested by appropriate methods of sampling and examination, the product shall be free from micro-organisms or substances originating from microorganisms and parasites in amounts which may represent a hazard to health.

The product should be packaged in containers which will safeguard the hygienic, nutritional, technological, and organoleptic qualities of the product. The containers, including packaging material, should be made of substances which are safe and suitable for their intended use. They should not impart any toxic substance or undesirable odour or flavour to the product.

FORTIFICATION Micronutrient deficiencies: An unfinished agenda Micronutrient deficiencies constitute a heavy disease burden that is

shouldered disproportionately by a highly vulnerable group in the most vulnerable countries in the world: children under 5 years in SubSaharan Africa (SSA). SSA with 11% of the world’s population accounts for more than half of the deaths and half of U5 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost to deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, zinc, and iodine.

Food fortification which is the addition of one or more micronutrients to foods consumed by a large proportion of the general population, has been demonstrated to be an effective public health intervention to improve micronutrient intakes and micronutrient status.

Though maize flour is the primary cereal consumed in many African countries, less than 30% of the industrially milled maize on the continent is fortified, according to World Food Programme (WFP) In 2016, representatives of government, grain milling, and development sectors from 14 countries in Africa met to deliberate the need to scale up maize flour fortification programs. Their work resulted in an Africa Maize Fortification Strategy for 2017-2026. The maize strategy is used as a reference to develop national fortification strategies for implementation by maize consuming countries. The Strategy has been aligned with World Health Organization (WHO);

MICRONUTRIENT RATE AND CHEMICAL FORM (WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME)

Vitamin A Vitamin B1 Vitamin B2 Vitamin B3 Folic Acid

Vitamin B12 Iron

Zinc

Target

Chemical Form

4.4 mg/kg

Thiamine monomitrate

1.0 mg/kg 2.6 mg/kg

35.0 mg/kg

Dry Vitamin palmimate 250 n.s

Riboflavin

Nicotinamide

1.0 mg/kg

Folic acid

15 mg/lg

NaFeEDTA

0.008 mg/kg 30 mg/kg

Cyancobalamin

Zinc Oxide

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PRODUCT FOCUS | Maize Meal Eastern and Central African Health Secretariat (ECSA), East African Community (EAC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regulations and guidelines regarding maize fortification.

Maize flour fortification in most African countries is still on voluntary basis. A few countries such as South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Nigeria, Malawi and Mozambique have mandatory maize flour fortification legislation. Through the voluntary food fortification programs, the countries and partners have put a lot of efforts to start and scaleup maize flour fortification in Africa. However, even where there is mandatory legislation for maize flour fortification, fortification by millers has been lagging due to the lack of or inadequate industry infrastructure, lack of technology for small commercially packaging mills, the absence of premix distribution mechanism and effective Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC) systems.

The concentration of vitamins and minerals to be added must be calculated based on nutritional requirements and consumption patterns, after which losses during storage and cooking must also be considered. Venezuela, for example, fortifies maize flour with a vitamin-mineral premix

THOUGH MAIZE FLOUR IS THE PRIMARY CEREAL CONSUMED IN MANY AFRICAN COUNTRIES, LESS THAN 30% OF THE INDUSTRIALLY MILLED MAIZE ON THE CONTINENT IS FORTIFIED. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME containing vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and iron.

Also, certain producers in Zimbabwe and Namibia fortify maize meal with a vitamin–mineral premix containing vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, pyridoxine and iron.

In line with the World Food Program (WFP) specifications, fortified milled maize should comprise of 99.98% maize and vitamin/mineral premix of 0.025% (250g/ton) by weight. It must be fortified to provide the following net micro nutrient supplement per kilogram of finished product: However, variable levels of micronutrients naturally present in maize may lead to variable amounts of micronutrients in finished product.

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Quality control a key aspect in maize milling Quality control plays a vital part in every stage of the production of milled maize from intake to packing. When it comes to testing, larger mills are at an advantage as they have fully equipped labs where routine checks can be carried out, as opposed to the small millers who cannot afford to equip and run such labs. Some of the basic tests that need to be conducted are moisture content, speck tests (black specks appear when the tip cap of the maize is not removed on the degerminator and ground up on the roller mill) and cooking test where maize meal products are cooked, tested and qualities such as taste and texture are noted.

The moisture content of the flour is important to ensure that the flour will be stable during storage. Flour containing more than 14.5% moisture is prone to mold and bacterial growth. It is also necessary to know the moisture content of the flour in order to adjust flour test data to a constant moisture basis. Commonly used moisture basis varies by country so the basis used should also be reported. Protein content is the basis by which flour is bought and sold and is one of the main factors controlling the price.

Control labs grapple to detect minute levels of mycotoxin Across the world, the occurrence of mycotoxins in foods and feeds is actively monitored by food and feed business operators, official control laboratories and FOODSAFETYAFRICA.NET

mycotoxins simultaneously at high parts per trillion (ppt) concentrations.

Combustion Analysis and Near-infrared spectroscopy for protein analysis Combustion analysis is an automated and rapid method which is replacing the Kjeldahl method as the standard method of analysis for protein content in food and animal feeds.

There are many different protein combustion instruments which all have the same basic operating principle. A sample of known mass is combusted in a high temperature chamber (about 900°C) in the presence of oxygen which causes the release of carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen gases. The carbon dioxide and water are absorbed and the nitrogen is separated out and quantified using special columns. Nitrogen content is then used to calculate crude protein content using conversion factors.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) can also be used to directly measure protein content. It is the fastest and easiest method to run. An advantage of NIR is that the moisture and protein contents as well as many other properties of the flour can be measured simultaneously.

research organizations either to determine the regulatory compliance or the quality of foods and feeds. Analytical methods are generally well established for many mycotoxins; currently liquid chromatography (LC) based methods coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (MS) are probably the most widely applied and preferred.

The current trend in mycotoxin analysis seems to be on the one hand to reach ever lower concentration levels and multi-mycotoxin and full metabolite profiles, and on the other hand to determine the compliance at the statutory levels by fast on-site techniques. The current multi-analyte and multi-class analytical methods are capable of a high throughput of samples making larger amounts of results available than ever before in a short period of time.

The analysis at the low concentrations requires not only advanced and expensive techniques but also experienced human resources and time. These reasons typically limit the routine control laboratories to analyze mycotoxins at their lowest possible limits of detection/limits of quantification (LODs/LOQs) the method is capable to. They rather operate with pragmatic fit-for-purpose methods in the region of the legal mycotoxin maximum levels (MLs).

Large scale processors and contract analytical laboratories can utilize end-to-end automated ELISA workflows which provide high throughput solutions for economical and accurate screening up to 1ppb in grains.

Where confirmatory tests are needed, advanced LC/MS/ MS technologies provide a sensitive tool to screen multiple

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PerkinElmer takes lead with new state-of-art innovations To make first-pass testing easier at the grain elevator to the lab bench and for small-scale labs, many in the industry are utilizing rapid lateral flow testing strips given their intuitive methodology and reliability. The cost-effective lateral flow strips require little user training and the simplicity of the design contributes to the speed of testing making it the ideal solution for ingredient intake monitoring. With this the manufacturers can verify whether they are sourcing

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PRODUCT FOCUS | Maize Meal quality ingredients from trusted suppliers or if further testing needs to be done.

In 2018, PerkinElmer debuted QSight Triple Quad 400 Series (a LC/MS/MS system) which provides advanced confirmation testing and analyzes multiple types of mycotoxins — like aflatoxin, vomitoxin, zearalenone,

AS DEFINED BY CODEX STANDARDS, WHAT IS COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS MAIZE MEAL IN MANY AFRICAN COUNTRIES IS ACTUALLY MAIZE FLOUR fumonisin, T-2 and Ochratoxin A. Come 2019, the company introduced a lateral flow test named, AuroFlow AQ Afla strip test with QuickSTAR Horizon strip reader to help lab professionals, technicians and farmers conduct first-round screening for aflatoxins in corn (including B1, B2, G1, and G2) down to 2-300 ppb detection levels, in six minutes. This solution features a single-step, waterbased extraction method with lateral flow testing at room temperature — enabling safe and easy sampling without incubators and centrifuges. The handheld reader is battery operated and rugged, supporting flexible in-field testing. Results are easy to view on the reader’s menudriven color touchscreen and then stored and archived for PERKINELMER’S QSIGHT TRIPLE QUAD 400 SERIES

LIST OF COMPULSORY TESTS AND REFERENCE METHODS

No

Analyses

Recommended Level

Reference Method

1

Organoleptic Pleasant smell; Typical taste and color Moisture Content

14.0% max

ISO 712: 2009

Fat

3.0% max

4

Crude Fiber

1.2% max

AOAC 954.02 ISO 11085: 2008

5

Mesophyllic Aerobic Bacteria

100,000 cfu/g max

Peroxide Value

10 meq/kg fat max

2 3

6 7 8

9

AOAC 992.16 AOAC 985.29 ICC No 125 ICC No 133 AACC 42-11

Yeast and Mould

1000 cfu/g max

Total aflatoxin (B1 + B2 + G1 +G3)

20 ppb max

AOAC 972.26 AACC 45-16 ISO 16050

90% thru 1.4 mm sieve

AACC 66-20

Granulation

10

Vitamin A

1.0 mg/kg

11

Iron

15.0 mg/kg

12

Zinc

30.0 mg/kg

ICC No 146 AACC 42-50

AOAC 965.33

AOAC 992.04 AACC 86-03

AOAC 944.02 AACC 40-41B AOAC 999.10 AACC 40-75

further reference and audit trails.

Ash content is often used as a measure of the grade or type of flour because it shows how much bran is present in the flour. Flours milled using a low extraction rate are premium products with low ash contents that can be sold for a higher price than flours milled with a high extraction rate that includes more bran and higher ash. The Perten Inframatic 86 series NIR with ash kit (AACCI Approved Method 08-21.01), one of PerkinElmer’s inventions, is the only NIR currently specified in an approved method to measure ash content. This instrument allows the user to adjust the bias and slope in the NIR calibration so the measured values are more accurate. The adjustments are calculated by analyzing a reference set of flours using both the NIR and the muffle furnace ash method.

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