Nutritional Quality, Level of Chemical Contaminants and Adulterants in Milk and Dairy Products in Ethiopia: A Review

Haftom Zebib,Ashagrie Zewdu

doi:10.11648/j.mc.20200804.13

Abstract

Milk is a highly nutritious food, and it is a source of necessary macro and micro-nutrients for the growth, development and maintenance of human health. However the quality and safety of milk and dairy products become major health concern for consumers particularly to infants and children. This paper attempts to review the state of knowledge on nutritional quality, chemical contaminants and adulterants of milk and dairy products in Ethiopia. It also focuses on the method for analysis and identifies gaps for future work. Some work has been done in nutritional quality of milk and dairy products. The nutritional quality of Ethiopian milk products are substandard due to poor hygienic practices and water adulteration at farm level and value chain actors. Few of the research results reviewed for aflatoxin M1, organochlorine pesticide, heavy metals and antibiotic residues exceed international maximum permissible limit standards. The use of adulterants for economic gain is adding of water (dilution) in raw milk. In general there are limited reports in chemical contaminants in the country. Further research is required on quantification, implementation of monitoring and controlling system to improve the quality and safety of milk products across value chain in the regions of the country.

Highlights

Milk is a highly nutritious food containing many macroand micronutrients that are essential for the growth and maintenance of human health [1]
The presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in feed and the subsequent exposure of lactating animals to it leads to the contamination of milk with the hydroxyl metabolite AFM1 [2,3,4]
Review materials were collected through searching from Addis Ababa University (AAU) library, AAU website data, Science Direct, Google Scholar and Internet to gather publicly available information on the nutritional quality, chemical contaminants and adulterants of milk products

Summary

Introduction

Milk is a highly nutritious food containing many macroand micronutrients that are essential for the growth and maintenance of human health [1]. The common milk and dairy products contaminants are aflatoxins, toxic metals, pesticides, antibiotics and adulterants which can be controlled or/reduced by implementation of good agricultural practices and good hygienic practices at farm level and other value chain actors. The presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in feed and the subsequent exposure of lactating animals to it leads to the contamination of milk with the hydroxyl metabolite AFM1 [2,3,4]. AFM1 is known to be carcinogenic and can be a potential health hazard to humans to infants and children since they are more susceptible to its effect than adults [5]

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion