• EDITORIAL POLICY
  • ABOUT US
PML Daily
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • NEWS
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Regional
    • Africa
    • World
  • INVESTIGATIONS
    • National Archives
    • Special Reports
  • OpEd
  • BUSINESS
    • Agriculture
    • Tech
    • Finance
  • FEATURES
    • Health
    • Tours & Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Society
  • COLUMNISTS
    • The Suited Penguin
  • SPORT
  • Jobs
  • Magazines
  • Home
  • NEWS
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Regional
    • Africa
    • World
  • INVESTIGATIONS
    • National Archives
    • Special Reports
  • OpEd
  • BUSINESS
    • Agriculture
    • Tech
    • Finance
  • FEATURES
    • Health
    • Tours & Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Society
  • COLUMNISTS
    • The Suited Penguin
  • SPORT
  • Jobs
  • Magazines
No Result
View All Result
PML Daily
No Result
View All Result
Home BUSINESS Agriculture

World Food Programme to dispose of compromised food stocks after poisoning concerns in Uganda

JAVIRA SSEBWAMI | PML Daily Staff WriterbyJAVIRA SSEBWAMI | PML Daily Staff Writer
October 26, 2019
27 1
47
SHARES
404
VIEWS
FacebookWhatsAppTwitter
Super Cereal is maize or wheat blended with soya beans, fortified with vitamins and minerals, and processed into a flour. (PHOTO/File)

KAMPALA —The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations will begin destroying global stocks of a blended food product, identified as a source of sickness among people who consumed it in Uganda earlier this year.

Distribution of the stocks of Super Cereal, produced by one of WFP’s suppliers, were suspended following an outbreak of illness, pending investigations that have identified the product as the most probable cause of illness among people in the Karamoja region of Uganda.

Five people died and around 300 fell sick after eating Super Cereal distributed in Karamoja in March and April.

Complex investigations involving international food safety experts indicate that the probable cause of the sickness was contamination of Super Cereal by tropane alkaloids during harvesting or production.

This contamination can occur when wild plants from the Solanaceae family enter the food supply chain.

“The women and children whose lives are saved and changed through food assistance remain our priority and this was an extremely unfortunate and unprecedented event in the history of WFP food assistance” said Amir Abdulla, Deputy Executive Director of WFP.

“WFP is deeply saddened by the loss of life and suffering among vulnerable communities who count on food assistance in one of the poorest areas of Uganda”.

WFP is committed to raising production standards of its suppliers as it continuously strives to improve food quality along the whole WFP supply chain.

“There is growing demand for specialized nutritional food products globally, particularly as conflict drives food crises. Operating in challenging environments, we must intensify efforts to improve our supply chain management and food quality. We are already communicating with suppliers about phasing in new standards and upgraded specification expectations to meet new demands,” said Abdulla.

In addition to suspending distribution and organizing the destruction of the product, WFP has increased oversight of every link in the production cycle of Super Cereal, including spot checks and sampling of cargo along the supply chain to test for any potential contamination.

The Ministry of Health in Uganda, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working with WFP and other experts, have been investigating and testing samples since the first outbreak of sickness to determine the precise cause.

Super Cereal is maize or wheat blended with soya beans, fortified with vitamins and minerals, and processed into a flour. It is a critical part of WFP’s efforts to prevent malnutrition and save lives.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Related

Leave a comment

Tags: CDCCentre for Disease ControlDr Jane Ruth AcengHealth ministryKaramojaUNunited nationsWFPworld food progeamme

Get real time update about this post categories directly on your device, subscribe now.

Unsubscribe


About

The PML Daily, published via www.pmldaily.com is a publication of Post Media Ltd, a professional Digital/New Media company in Uganda.

Follow us



  • EDITORIAL POLICY
  • ABOUT US

© 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • NEWS
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Regional
    • Africa
    • World
  • INVESTIGATIONS
    • National Archives
    • Special Reports
  • OpEd
  • BUSINESS
    • Agriculture
    • Tech
    • Finance
  • FEATURES
    • Health
    • Tours & Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Society
  • COLUMNISTS
    • The Suited Penguin
  • SPORT
  • Jobs
  • Magazines

© 2023

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist