Uganda’s food safety crisis leaves many at risk of disease and death

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda urgently needs to check the food safety crisis or risk the burden of illness and deaths dues to the consumption of toxic food and beverages.

A number of experts warn that the food we consume is getting contaminated right from the garden, storage, markets, and at preparation.

The experts in nutrition, food rights advocacy, and consumer protection seem to agree that if the food one eats is not safe, then it is not food.

Professor, Archileo Kaaya from Makerere University’s Department of Food Technology and Nutrition says Uganda’s food safety management system is inadequate and therefore exposes people to unsafe food on the market and eating places.

Professor Kaaya was one the speakers at the just concluded Conference on Human Rights to Adequate Food hosted at Makerere University. He and other experts there is poor food handling at the different stages along the food chain.

With the increase in agrochemicals in farming, farmers are not adhering to simple rules on when a crop should be sprayed. It is common to find fresh tomatoes on market stalls sprayed with pesticides. Sellers believe pesticides prolong the shelf-life of the harvested vegetables.

At the market level, the food is laid on the ground, meat is sliced on unhygienic surfaces like logs, and unhealthy chemicals are used in preservation. Freshly treated animals are sold for slaughter further exposing the consumer.

Professor Kaaya says that food poisoning is more prevalent in vegetables and fruits because they are often eaten raw and also fish and milk.

According to a 2018 study by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, the safety of Food in Uganda is compromised because everyone can sell, the food regardless of whether it is adulterated or contaminated and there is a gross misuse of chemicals.

Ruth Sekindi the Director of Monitoring and Inspection at Uganda Human Rights Commission says that it is common to find vendors using pesticides to allegedly “preserve” foods such as tomatoes while fishermen use poison to catch fish.

Sekindi adds that storekeepers are also fond of changing the expiry dates on their products to increase their shelf life.

She revealed that the 1964 Food and Drug Act which is the main law on food is obsolete while the Food and Nutrition Bill of 2009 has never been enacted.

Henry Kimera a consumer rights and development advocate who has been advocating for a consumer protection law in Uganda said that there is no right to adequate if food it is not safe. Kimera is of the view that without quality and safety culture at every stage of the food system.

According to Kimera, with limited awareness, high consumer ignorance, incoherent policies, legal and regulatory frameworks the consumer has been rendered helpless, especially at a time when there is increasing food adulteration, chemicals and their indiscriminate application.

The Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) study recently found that the food supply chain of Uganda has seen several challenges, including chemical substances of public health concern that have been detected in food and food products in the market. The study found that unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, the elderly, and the sick. The researchers said 1.3 million Ugandans are diagnosed with food-borne illnesses annually, constituting 14% of all human ailments treated annually.

Gastrointestinal illnesses were reportedly the most common manifestation of food-borne disease and are particularly associated with undercooked meat, eggs, fish, fresh produce, and dairy products.

EPRC found that the food policy environment is diverse, but food safety is limited to a few policies and laws.

There were over 23 food and nutrition laws, 6 policies, 9 regulations, 12 strategies and plans, and several standards to ensure a healthy food environment. But according to the study, despite all these laws and policies, food safety were an orphaned element of the Food and Drugs Act of 1964.

David Kabanda, the Executive Director of the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights, a not-for-profit organisation advocating for human-rights-based approach to food, nutrition, trade and Investment systems says that government should examine the country’s food management systems and take immediate action to remedy the inadequacies.

He recommends that grain milling in the whole country be suspended to allow government inspect and enforce milling standards.

Kabanda says that millers continue to use Nonfood graded equipment which produces grain with high metal continent harmful to human health. /

At the close of the conference, it had been resolved that the government reviews the Food and Nutrition Policy of 2003 to strengthen the Human Right to Adequate food, expedite the enactment of a law that upholds, safeguards and promotes the human right to adequate food in accordance with article 8 AC of the constitution.

It was also resolved that a technical team with relevant structures to support operationalization, monitoring, and reporting on the human rights to adequate food should be established under relevant authorities to support the progressive realization of this for all levels of Ugandans, adequately fund the UHRC to carry out its mandate.

The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Nobert Mao who represented the president at the conference committed to review the conference communique when its ready and push for government action and further deliberations.

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