{{Beef products imported from Europe and distributed in Zambia by leading meat company Zambeef have tested positive for aromatic aldehyde, a chemical which can cause cancer, the health minister said Friday.}}<\/p>\n
Zambeef last month recalled from its retail outlets all imported products after concerns that they contained the chemical, which is also used to embalm dead bodies, prompting laboratory tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can confirm that the presence of formaldehydes has been confirmed in the samples that were taken to South Africa for further investigations,\u201d Health Minister Joseph Kasonde told media.<\/p>\n
He said the chemical was found in offals and hooves which Zambeef imports from Europe.<\/p>\n
It is prohibited for use as a food preservative in Zambia.<\/p>\n
\u201cFormaldehyde is in a group of aldehydes and is a compound mainly used in embalming corpses for preservation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A medical doctor, Robert Mtonga, said prolonged exposure to the chemical could cause organ cancers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong the acute effects of formaldehyde exposure are irritations of the eyes, the nose, and the throat,\u201d he told media.<\/p>\n
But \u201cthere is also some evidence that constant formaldehyde exposure increases the chances of developing certain forms of cancer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Incidences of lung and nose cancer appear to be \u201csignificantly\u201d higher among people who are regularly exposed to the chemical, said the doctor.<\/p>\n
The health minister said cabinet will meet to decide on sanctions to be imposed on Zambeef, one of the country\u2019s largest employers.<\/p>\n
Phone calls to Zambeef\u2019s officials went unanswered on Friday.<\/p>\n
{AFP}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Beef products imported from Europe and distributed in Zambia by leading meat company Zambeef have tested positive for aromatic aldehyde, a chemical which can cause cancer, the health minister said Friday.}} Zambeef last month recalled from its retail outlets all imported products after concerns that they contained the chemical, which is also used to embalm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-9209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9209"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=9209"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=9209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}