| dc.description.abstract | Food control is of national strategic interest to guarantee food safety and protect human health. Uganda has a multi-agency food control system where mandates and quality infrastructure are fragmented into different government ministries. Fragmentation leads to lack of accountability for food safety issues and weaknesses that unscrupulous food handlers exploit to compromise food safety. The level of knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of food handlers in rice value chain of Uganda is not known. Similarly, the incidence, level of contamination and potential health risks associated with consumption of rice on the Ugandan market are unknown.
The purpose of this research was to assess the effectiveness of the food control system on the rice value chain of Uganda. A desk-based study was done to identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement of food control along the rice value chain. Knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of rice handlers were assessed in a cross sectional study using 252 rice handlers. The incidence and level of aflatoxins, heavy metals and pesticide residues in imported and locally produced rice were analysed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, respectively. Estimated Daily Intake (EDI), Hazard Index (HI) and Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) were determined to define the dietary exposure, non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risk from contaminants, respectively.
The food policy and subsequent laws are outdated hence the ineffective control food system. The study on KAP established that about 221 (87.7%) food handlers knew about the occurrence and effects of aflatoxins, and pesticides in rice. The incidence of total aflatoxin (TAF) contamination in imported rice (63.3%) was higher than (22.5%) reported in locally produced rice. The mean cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) levels in imported rice (0.52±1.15 mg/kg and 0.79±1.27 mg/kg) exceeded the Ugandan Standard (US 738:2019) and Codex Standard (CXS 193-1995) specifications of 0.1 mg/kg and 0.2 mg/kg, respectively. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) detected in imported rice were higher than the maximum residual limits of Codex Alimentarius Commission. The potency of liver cancer cases in Uganda was 1.02×10-5 and 1.05×10-5 adults/year/100,000, and 6.50×10-4 and 6.72×10-5 infants /year/100,000 for open traded and packed rice, respectively. The values obtained for the Incremental Life Cancer Risk (ILCR) for Arsenic (As) detected in rice were 1.14×10-2 and 7.28×10-2 for adults and infants, respectively. The ILCR of all detected OCPs in adults and infants were higher than 1.0×10-4, in both open traded and packed rice.
In conclusion, the food safety law in Uganda is antediluvian and there is need to amend it to address challenges in food control. Food handlers were generally knowledgeable about aflatoxin and pesticide contamination but not heavy metals. Imported rice had a higher incidence and mean total aflatoxin, cadmium and lead concentration as compared to locally grown rice. This study further revealed that there is a potential As and OCP- based carcinogenic risk from consumption rice in both infants and adults at the current level of contamination and consumption rate. | en_US |
