Melamine Milk Powder and Infant Formula Sold in East Africa

2010 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 1709-1714 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAGMAR SCHODER
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Infant Formula ◽  
Daily Intake ◽  
Milk Powder ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Sensitive Assay ◽  
East African ◽  
Milk Products ◽  
Sub Saharan

This is the first study proving the existence of melamine in milk powder and infant formula exported to the African market. A total of 49 milk powder batches were collected in Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania, East Africa), the center of international trade in East Africa, which serves as a commercial bottleneck and shipment hub for sub-Saharan, Central, and East Africa. Two categories of samples were collected between October and December 2008, immediately after the melamine contamination of Chinese products became public: (i) market brands of all international companies supplying the East African market and (ii) illegally sold products from informal channels. Melamine concentration was determined with the AgraQuant Melamine Sensitive Assay. Despite the national import prohibition of Chinese milk products and unlabeled milk powder in Tanzania, 11% (22 of 200) of inspected microretailers sold milk powder on the local black market. Manufacturers could be identified for only 55% (27) of the 49 investigated batches. Six percent (3 of 49) of all samples and 11% (3 of 27) of all international brand name products tested revealed melamine concentrations up to 5.5 mg/kg of milk powder. This amount represents about twice the tolerable daily intake as suggested by the U.S Food and Drug Administration. Based on our study, we can assume that the number of affected children in Africa is substantial.

scholarly journals Graduates’ employability skills in East Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Lourdes Guàrdia ◽  
Federica Mancini ◽  
Pedro Jacobetty ◽  
Marcelo Maina
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Skills Gap ◽  
East African ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Graduate Employability ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan

This paper reports a study about the perceptions of the academic community, employers and civil servants regarding graduates’ employability skills in East Africa. Specifically, it focuses on the mismatch between skills acquired in Higher Education (HE) and those in demand by employers, and explores factors influencing the situation. A mixed method approach was implemented including a survey and a set of focus groups. The questionnaire on employability skills was distributed among regional stakeholders attending the Open Day events organised by three East African HE Institutions. A Principal Components Analysis was applied for the categorisation of the most in-demand skills and the identification of four major workplace skill sets. To gain further insights into the stakeholders’ perceptions of the graduate employability skills gap, 11 focus groups were organised at the same universities. The general results showed that employability skills were mostly perceived as insufficiently developed during the students’ progress in their programs. The final results enabled a better understanding of the nuanced relationship between labour market valuation and graduates’ acquisition of each skill set. It also allowed us to identify problems and barriers, and suggest possible solutions to overcome the shortcomings experienced by the sub-Saharan HE system.

scholarly journals Detection, Risk Assessment, and Survey of Four Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Markers in Infant Formula Powder

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenggang Cai ◽  
Pinggu Wu ◽  
Pingping Zhou ◽  
Dajin Yang ◽  
Zhengyan Hu
Keyword(s):  
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon ◽  
Aromatic Hydrocarbon ◽  
Infant Formula ◽  
Solid Phase ◽  
Daily Intake ◽  
Milk Powder ◽  
Internal Standard ◽  
Infant Exposure ◽  
Relative Standard ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic

A gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) method was developed to assess the infant exposure assessment from four important polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) markers in infant formula powder: benzo[a]anthracene, chrysene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and benzo[a]pyrene (collectively referred to as PAH4). The developed method required the addition of an isotopically labeled internal standard, sample extraction under alkali conditions, a saponification step, and a solid-phase extraction purification step. In a controlled spike test, the average recovery rates of PAH4 were 77.3% to 111.8% and the relative standard deviations were 4.8% to 14.2% (n = 6). The quantitative limit (LOQ) and detection limit (LOD) of the method were 0.5 and 0.1 μg·kg−1, respectively. The PAH4 content was analyzed in 30 commercially available infant formula powders. The PAH4 content was found to be in the range of 0.1 to 0.87 μg·kg−1. Combined with the daily intake of infant milk powder in China, the average and maximum daily exposure of BaP for stage-1 infants in China are 0.45 ng/kg.bw.d−1 and 1.9 ng/kg.bw.d−1 and the PAH4 values are 8.6 ng/kg.bw.d−1 and 18.6 ng/kg.bw.d−1, respectively. The PAH4 content in the tested infant formula powders sold in the China were sufficiently low, and all of the tested products were safe for consumption.

Conference on Agricultural Sectoral Planning in East Africa

1967 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-277
Author(s):  
G. K. Helleiner
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Ford Foundation ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Agricultural Economics ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
East African ◽  
The Third ◽  
Sectoral Planning ◽  
The University

This conference was the third in a series of biannual conferences organised by academics and civil servants working in agricultural economics in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Delegates from Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, U.S.A., and the F.A.O. also attended and participated in the discussions. The conference was financed by the Ford Foundation, organised and sponsored by the Economic Research Bureau of the University College, Dar es Salaam, and supported by the three East African Governments.

The War of Legs

Transfers ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-120
Author(s):  
Michael Pesek
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
World War ◽  
East African ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Belgian Congo

This article describes the little-known history of military labor and transport during the East African campaign of World War I. Based on sources from German, Belgian, and British archives and publications, it considers the issue of military transport and supply in the thick of war. Traditional histories of World War I tend to be those of battles, but what follows is a history of roads and footpaths. More than a million Africans served as porters for the troops. Many paid with their lives. The organization of military labor was a huge task for the colonial and military bureaucracies for which they were hardly prepared. However, the need to organize military transport eventually initiated a process of modernization of the colonial state in the Belgian Congo and British East Africa. This process was not without backlash or failure. The Germans lost their well-developed military transport infrastructure during the Allied offensive of 1916. The British and Belgians went to war with the question of transport unresolved. They were unable to recruit enough Africans for military labor, a situation made worse by failures in the supplies by porters of food and medical care. One of the main factors that contributed to the success of German forces was the Allies' failure in the “war of legs.”

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