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Dar es Salaam. Tanzanian authorities carry out a safety audit of sugar sold on the local market following fears that sugar smuggling may have entered.
Health Minister Ummy Mwalimu confirmed Thursday that an inspection exercise was underway.
The audit follows reports in Kenya that police seized hundreds of tonnes of imported sugar containing mercury and copper particles
. Tanzania also suggested Thursday at a press conference that thousands of tons of products could have been illegally imported into the country.
By the Association of Sugar Importers, they stated that they did not sell 80,000 tonnes of brown sugar. which is stuck in warehouses due to the flood of the market with illegal imports. Manufacturers warned that unscrupulous traders were repackaging industrial sugar and contraband for domestic use to avoid being spotted by the authorities.
But Kenya's development is perhaps the most frightening, given that sugar import cartels A full-fledged survey is under way in Kenya where several people have been arrested with smuggled sugar that their Home Secretary, Fred Matiang & # 39; i, and the Director of Criminal Investigations, George Kinoti, are accusing of cheap sugar trafficking. Ms Mwalimu said that, following what was happening in the neighboring country, she had ordered the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) to conduct a survey on the safety of sugar sold in Tanzania.
"But I want to assure the Tanzanians that there is no need to worry … we take initiatives and I ordered an investigation to determine the quality of sugar in our market, "Ms. Mwalimu said. The minister said up to here that there was no information on contaminated sugar in the market.
She spoke Thursday at an event to inspect the construction of a modern TFDA laboratory in the Mwanza region.
The survey will be published in a week.
When she was contacted, the spokeswoman for the TFDA, Ms. Gaudencia Simwanza, confirmed that an audit was underway, but declined to provide further details on the case. Where the exercise was performed. The minister herself will announce the results, but the authority continues the audit exercise as it should, "she told The Citizen newspaper Friday in a telephone interview
]. sugar per year with a demand of 590 000 tonnes per year.
Domestic consumption is about 420,000 tons, while the remaining 170,000 tons are for industrial use. A deficit of 130 000 tonnes of domestic sugar is covered by imports.
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