DEAS 768:202 3 
ICS 67.060  
 
© EAC 2023                                                                                                                             Third Edition 2023  
 EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products  — Specification  
EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY  DEAS 768: 202 3 
ii © EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  
 Copyright notice  
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Violators may be prosecuted.  DEAS 768: 2023 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  iii 
 Foreword  
Development of the East African Standar ds has been necessitated by the need for harmonizing requirements 
governing quality of products and services in the East African Community. It is envisaged that through 
harmonized standardization, trade barriers that are encountered when goods and services  are exchanged 
within the Community will be removed.  
The Community has established an East African Standards Committee (EASC) mandated to develop and 
issue East African Standards (EAS).  The Committee is composed of representatives of the National 
Standard s Bodies in Partner States, together with the representatives from the public and private sector 
organizations in the community.  
East African Standards are developed through Technical Committees that are representative of key 
stakeholders including govern ment, academia, consumer groups, private sector and other interested parties. 
Draft East African Standards are circulated to stakeholders through the National Standards Bodies in the 
Partner States. The comments received are discussed and incorporated befo re finalization of standards, in 
accordance with the Principles and procedures for development of East African Standards.  
East African Standards are subject to review, to keep pace with technological advances. Users of the East 
African Standards are there fore expected to ensure that they always have the latest versions of the standards 
they are implementing .  
The committee responsible for this document is Technical Committee EASC/TC 018, Nutrition and foods for 
special dietary uses . 
Attention is drawn to t he possibility that some of the elements of this document may be subject of patent 
rights. EAC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.  
This thir d edition cancels and replaces the second  edition (EAS 768: 2019 ), which ha s been technically 
revised.  DEAS 768: 202 3 
iv © EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  
 Introduction  
The Health Ministers of the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA -HC) passed a 
resolution in 2002 directing the Secretariat to work with the countries to fortify commonly consumed foods in 
the re gion after recognizing that there is high level of malnutrition in the region. ECSA -HC is an 
intergovernmental organization that fosters cooperation in health among countries in the East, Central and 
Southern African Region. ECSA -HC members includes Kenya,  Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, 
Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mauritius and Seychelles.  
Following initial promotion efforts, the countries identified staple foods suitable for fortification as oil, sugar, 
maize meal/ flour and wheat flour. These foods c an be used as vehicles to deliver essential micronutrients to 
the populations. Based on scientific evidence and working with countries using country data, the Secretariat 
developed implementation focused guidelines on fortification of these foods to help c ountries start up 
programmes and scale up the existing programmes. These guidelines included fortification levels for addition 
of micronutrients at the factory, and levels for monitoring at commercial level.  
Based on the guidelines and other available info rmation, most of the countries in the East African Region and 
in the larger Africa have initiated national programmes on oil fortification with vitamin A; and wheat and maize 
meal/flour fortification with iron, zinc, folic acid, niacin, vitamin B -1, B-2, B-12, B -6 and vitamin A. Sugar 
fortification with vitamin A has also been considered as a way of supplementing other sources of the vitamin in 
order to prevent and reduce problems associated with the deficiency of this vitamin. Salt fortification with 
iodin e continues to be implemented in all the countries.  
With the increased trade of food commodities including these fortified foods within the region, it has become 
imperative to develop regional standards that over and above the other standards, stipulate m inimum and 
maximum levels of the added nutrients, provide clauses on how to pack the fortified product and the use of 
health and nutrition claims. The guidelines developed through ECSA have now been incorporated into food 
standards to provide for specific fortified products.It is envisaged that, the implementation of these standard 
within the region will help countries adopt food fortification as a strategy to prevent, alleviate or eliminate 
micronutrient deficiency in the region. Standards will not only pr omote the health of the population but will also 
ensure safety of food products and enhance fair trade.  
 DRAFT EAST AFRICAN STANDARD  DEAS 768: 202 3 
 
© EAC 2022  – All rights reserved  1 
 Fortified milled maize (corn) products — Specification  
1 Scope  
This Draft East African Standard specifies the requirements, sampling and test methods for fortified milled 
maize (corn) products prepared from the grains of common maize (Zea mays L.) intended for human 
consumption.  
2 Normative references  
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content co nstitutes 
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, 
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.  
AOAC 2001.13, Determination of Vitamin A (Retinol) in f ood — Liquid Chromatography  
AOAC 2004.05, Total folates in cereal and cereal foods — Microbiological Assay -Trienzyme Procedure  
AOAC 2011.14, Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, Phosphorus, Sodium and Zinc in 
fortified food products. Mic rowave Digestion and Inductively Coupled Plasma -Optical Emission Spectromatry  
AOAC 944.02, Official Method for Determination of Iron in flour. Spectrophotometric method  
AOAC 952.13, Arsenic in food — Silver diethyldithiocarbamate  
AOAC 953.17, Thiamine (vit amin B1) in grain products. Fluorometric (rapid) method  
AOAC 961.15, Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine pyridoxal pyridoxamine) in food extracts. Microbiological method  
AOAC 965.22, Sorting Corn Grits Sieving Method Modified  
AOAC 970.65, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) in foo ds and vitamin prepara tions  
AOAC 975.41, Niacin and niacinamide in cereal products. Automated method  
CODEX STAN 192, Codex general standard for food additives  
EAS 2, Maize grains — Specification  
EAS 38, Labelling of pre -packaged foods — Specification  
EAS 3 9, Code of practice for hygiene in the food and drink manufacturing industry  
EAS 44, Milled maize (corn) products — Specification  
EAS 803, Nutrition labelling — Requirements  
EAS 804,  Claims on food — General requirements  
EAS 805,  Use of nutrition and healt h claims — Requirements  
EAS 900, Cereals and Pulses - Sampling   
2 © EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  
 EAS 901, Cereals and Pulses – Test Methods  
ISO 11085, Cereals, cereals -based products and animal feeding stuffs — Determination of crude fat and total 
fat content by the Randall extraction meth od 
ISO 16649 -2, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
beta-glucuronidase -positive Escherichia coli — Part 2: Colony -count technique at 44 degrees C using 5 -
bromo -4-chloro -3-indolyl beta -D-glucuronide  
ISO 20634, Infant formula and adult nutritionals — Determination of vitamin B12 by reversed phase high  
performance liquid chromatography (RP -HPLC)  
ISO 21527 -2, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
yeasts an d moulds — Part 2: Colony count technique in products with water activity less than or equal to 0,95  
ISO 2171, Cereals, pulses and by -products — Determination of ash yield by incineration  
ISO 4833 -1, Microbiology of the food chain — Horizontal method for t he enumeration of microorganisms —
Part 1: Colony count at 30 degrees C by the pour plate technique  
ISO 5498, Agricultural food products — Determination crude fibre Content -General method  
ISO 5985, Animal feeding stuffs — Determination of ash insoluble in h ydrochloric acid  
ISO 6561 -1, Fruits, vegetables and derived products — Determination of cadmium content — Part 1 —
Method using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry  
ISO 6561 -2, Fruits, vegetables and derived products -- Determination of cadmium c ontent -- Part 2: Method 
using flame atomic absorption spectrometry  
ISO 6579 -1, Microbiology of the food chain — Horizontal method for the detection, enumeration and 
serotyping of Salmonella — Part 1: Detection of Salmonella spp.  
ISO 6633,  Fruits, vegetabl es and derived products — Determination of lead content — Flameless atomic 
absorption spectrometric method  
ISO 6888 -1, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs — Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
coagulase -positive staphylococci (Staphylococcu s aureus and other species) — Part 1: Technique using 
Baird -Parker agar medium  
ISO 7305, Milled cereal products -- Determination of fat acidity  
3 Terms and definitions  
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.  
ISO and IE C maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:  
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp  
3.1  
diluent  
suitable, inert, edible food -grade carrier f or micronutrients  
3.2  
fortification premix  
blend of fortificants and diluents formulated to provide specified and determinable amounts of micronutrients   
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  3 
 3.3  
fortified milled maize (corn) products  
milled maize products to which essential micronutrients  have been added  
3.4  
fortificant  
compound which contains essential micronutrient intended to be added to a food   
 
3.5  
food fortification  
practice of deliberately adding micronutrient(s), that is vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food , so 
as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health  
3.6 
essential micronutrients  
refers to any micronutrient, which is needed for growth and development and the maintenance of health y life, that is 
normally consumed as a constituent of food and cannot be synthesized in adequate amounts by the body.  
3.7 
milled maize (corn) products  
products obtained from maize grains (Zea mays L.) through milling process including granulated maize mea l, sifted 
maize meal, whole maize meal and maize flour  
3.7.1  
granulated maize meal  
coarse product obtained from milling and sifting of clean shelled maize  
3.7.2  
sifted maize meal  
form of granulated maize meal that has been reduced to a certain degree  of fineness  
3.7.3  
whole maize meal  
food prepared from fully mature, sound, un -germinated, whole kernels of maize, Zea mays L ., by a grinding 
process in which the entire grain is comminuted to a suitable degree of fineness  
3.7.4  
maize flour  
product o btained by removing the germ and bran followed by grinding, clean maize kernels using roller mills or other 
methods and sifting the resulting product to suitable degree of fineness  
4 Requirements  
4.1 Raw materials  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products sha ll be prepared from milled maize complying with EAS 44 or maize 
grains complying with EAS 2.  
4.2 General requirements  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products shall be:  
a) of characteristic colour of milled maize or maize grains from which they were prepared;   
b) free from foreign matter such as insects, fungi or dirt;  
c) free from fermented musty or other objectionable odour; and   
4 © EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  
 d) wholesome and fit for human consumption.  
4.3 Specific requirements  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products shall comply with the requir ements given in Table 1 when tested in 
accordance with tested method specified therein.  
Table 1 — Specific requirements for fortified milled maize (corn) products  
S/N Characteristic  Type  Test method  
Sifted maize 
meal  Granulated 
maize meal  Whole maiz e 
meal  Maize flour  
i.  Crude fibre, % by m/m,  
max.  0.7  1.0  3.0  0.7  ISO 5498  
ii.  Crude fat on moisture 
free basis, % by m/m, 
max.  3.0  
 3.0  
 3.1*  
 3.0  
 ISO 11085  
 
iii.  Moisture content, % by 
m/m, max.  14  14  14  14  EAS 901  
Clause 5  
iv.  Total ash, % b y m/m,  
max.  1.0  
 1.0  
 3.0  
 1.0  
 ISO 2171  
v.  Acid insoluble ash, % by  
m/m, max.  0.15  
 0.35  
 0.40  
 0.15  
 ISO 5985  
 
vi.  Fat acidity, mg KOH per  
100 g of product, m/m,  
max.  80  
 80  
 80  
 80  
 ISO 7305  
 
vii.  Residue on sieving  
through 1000 -micron  
sieve, % by m/m, max  0.5  
 N/A 
 N/A  
 0.5  
 AOAC 965.22  
 
* Minimum crude fat on moisture free basis for whole maize meal  
 
 
5 Fortification requirements  
5.1 Levels of micronutrients  
The fortified milled maize (corn) products shall comply with the levels of micronutrients provided in Table 2 when 
tested in accordance with test methods specified therein.  
Table 2 — Requirements for micronutrients in fortified milled maize (corn) products  
S/N  Nutrient  Fortificant  Limits, mg/kg  Test method  
Min.  Max.  
i.  Vitamin A a)  Vitamin A 
(Retinyl) 
palmitate, spray -
dried or 
equivalent, 75 
000 μg RE/g b) 
(7.5 % retinol), 
min.  0.5  1.4  AOAC 2001.13  
  
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  5 
 ii.  Vitamin B 1 a)  Thiamin 
Mononitrate, 
81 %, min.  3.0  N/Ac)  AOAC 953.17  
iii.  Vitamin B 2 a)  Riboflavin, 
100 %, min.  2  N/A AOAC 970.65  
iv.  Niacin a)  Niacinamide, 
99 %, min.  14.9  N/A AOAC 975.41  
v.  Vitamin B 6 a) Pyridoxine 
hydrochloride, 
82 %, min.  2  N/A  AOAC 961.15  
vi.  Folate  Folic acid, 
90.5 %, min.  0.6  1.7  AOAC 2004.05  
vii.  Vitamin B 12  Vitamin B 12, WS, 
0.1 %, min.  0.007  N/A  ISO 20634  
viii.  Zinc  Zinc oxide, 80 %, 
min. 33  65  AOAC 2011.14  
ix.  Total iron  Total iron  21  NA  AOAC 944.02  
aThe addition of these micronutrients is optional in Tanzania  
b1μg RE = 3.33 IU, RE = Retinol equivalent  
cNA-Not Applicable. The maximum limits for these nutrients are not necessary because the upper tolerance  
limits of these nutrients are very high.  
NOTE 1 Any other fortificants listed by either British Pharmacopoe ia (BP); Food Chemical Codex (FCC); 
Merck Index (MI); United States National Formulary (NF); European Pharmacopoeia (Ph Eur); United States 
Pharmacopoeia (USP); or FAO WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission may be used.  
NOTE 2 Only NaFeEDTA, 12.5 % Fe, min or Ferrous fumarate, 32 %, min shall be used as a source of iron so 
as to provide iron at 10 -30 mg/kg and 10 -30 mg/kg respectively for milled maize (corn) product fortification.  
 
5.2 Fortificants and fortification premixes  
The fortificants and fortificati on premixes may be formulated in accordance with  EAS 1023   
6 Food additives  
The product may contain food additives in accordance with CODEX STAN 192.  
7 Hygiene  
7.1 Fortified milled maize (corn) products shall be produced, prepared and handled in accordance w ith EAS 
39.  
7.2 The product shall comply with microbiological limits given in Table 3 when tested in accordance with the 
test methods specified therein   
6 © EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  
 Table 3 — Microbiological limits for fortified milled maize (corn) products  
S/N  Micro -organism  Maximum  limit  Test method  
i.  Total aerobic count, cfu/g  105 ISO 4833 -1  
ii.  Escherichia coli , cfu/g   102 ISO 16649 -2  
iii.  Salmonella spp in  25 g  Absent  ISO 6579 -1 
iv.  Yeast and moulds, cfu/g  104 ISO 21527 -2 
v.  Staphylococcus aureus , cfu/ g  <10  ISO 6888 -1  
8 Conta minants  
8.1 Heavy metals  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products shall comply with maximum limits for heavy metals as given in Table 4 
when tested in accordance with the test methods specified therein.  
Table 4 — Heavy metals limits for fortified milled m aize (corn) products  
S/N  Heavy metal  Limit mg/kg  Test method  
i.  Arsenic (As)  0.1  AOAC 952.13  
ii.  Lead (Pb)  0.2  ISO 6633  
iii.  Cadmium (Cd)  0.1  AOC 999.11  
 
8.2 Pesticide residues  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products shall comply with the maximum re sidue limits established by the Codex 
Alimentarius Commission for this commodity.  
NOTE :  Where the use of certain pesticides is prohibited by some Partner States, it should be notified to all Partner States 
accordingly.  
8.3 Mycotoxins  
Fortified milled m aize (corn) products shall comply with mycotoxin limits specified in Table 5 when tested in 
accordance with test methods specified therein.  
Table 5 — Mycotoxins limits for fortified milled maize (corn) products  
S/N  Mycotoxin  Maximum limit µg/kg  Test me thod  
EAS 901  
i.  Total aflatoxins  10  Clause 9  
ii.  Aflatoxins B1  5  Clause 10  
iii.  Fumonisins  2 000  Clause 11  
Clause 12  
 
9 Packaging  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products shall be packaged in food grade packaging materials.   
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  7 
 10 Labelling  
11.1 General labell ing  
In addition to the requirements in EAS 38, each package shall be legibly and indelibly marked with the 
following:  
Name of product shall be "Fortified Whole Maize Meal’ or ‘Fortified Sifted Maize meal’ or ‘Fortified Maize flour’ 
or ‘Fortified Granulat ed Maize meal";  
NOTE :Each product unit may also be marked with the national food fortification logo, where the industry qualifies to use 
the mark.  
11.2 Nutrition labelling  
The amount of micronutrients in the fortified maize (corn) products shall be dec lared on the label in  
accordance with EAS 803.  
11.3 Nutrition and health claims  
Fortified milled maize (corn) products may have claims on the importance of the micronutrients in nutrition and 
health. Such claims when declared shall be in compliance with EAS 804 and EAS 805.  
11 Sampling  
Sampling shall be done in accordance with EAS 900.  
 
 
 
  
8 © EAC 2023 – All rights reserved  
 Bibliography  
[1] EAS 768:2012, Fortified milled maize (corn) products — Specification  
[2] CODEX STANDARD 154, Codex Standard for whole maize (corn) meal  
[3] CODEX STANDARD 155, Codex Standard for degermed maize (corn) meal and maize (corn) grits  
[4] ECSA -HC, Guidelines of fortification levels for staples.  DEAS 768: 202 3   
 
© EAC 2023 – All rights reserved