Abstract
In Africa, food security is directly related to food milling industries. Lack of hygiene and contamination during food processing could be one of the main causes of increasing cancer disease in African countries. Food processing inventory should be done to reduce such problems with the aim of good decision-making and improve the healthy quality of food consumed.The aim of this work is to assess food industries based on technical and socioeconomical analysis. A survey was then conducted on 100 food milling industries in Dschang city town. Descriptive analyses were performed using SPSS 21.0. Results show women are more involved in food milling activities. Almost all the food milling industries (92.6%) possess Hammer mill and Flattener mill machines to grind dry foodstuffs and wet foodstuffs respectively. Machine capacity is low which varies from the highest value of 30 kg per hour to the lowest value of 10 kg per hour. Based on the number of working machines, nine categories of industries were identified. The lifespan of those machines ranges from 5 to 7 years. None of the machines in industries possess the manual operation to carry out maintenance and provide healthy practices in food milling. Around 90% of the milling machines are made from metals and iron materials with industrial paints that could have negative effects on food quality. Laws to relate the lifespan and machine design should be put in place in order to protect consumers from food spoilage and intoxication by bacterial and ferrous contamination.
Presenters
Nsah Ko TchoumboueLecturer, College of Technology, University of Buea, South-West, Cameroon
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Food Production and Sustainability
KEYWORDS
ASSESSMENT, CHARACTERISTICS, PROCESSING, HEALTHY, PRACTICES
