In Kenya use of exotic dairy goats in breeding programmes for smallholder production systems has become popular, but information on the milk production is scarce. A study was carried out to assess the milk yield of dairy goats reared in high potential and semi arid areas of Nyeri County. This involved 190 smallholder farmers rearing Alpine dairy goats in Nyeri County and registered with Dairy Goat association of Kenya (DGAK), which formed 100% sampling of the population under study. The grade, feeding practices and age of the dairy goats were evaluated. The appendix grade in Kieni East gave the highest milk production of 2.69 liters per day, while the foundation grade in Mukurweini gave the lowest milk production of 0.98 litres per day. The higher milk production in Kieni East, a semi arid area, was due to good feeding practices, where 43% of the farmers used concentrates during milking and 48% supplemented the feed with minerals. In the high potential area of Mukurweini none of the farmers used mineral supplements with only 13% using concentrates during milking. The age of the dam was evaluated for the pedigree grade, where it significantly affected the average milk production. At the age of 5.0 to 5.9 years, the pedigree grade in Kieni East and Mukurweini gave highest production of 2.84 and 2.96 liters per day respectively. The results demonstrated that poor feeding practices, dam age and grade, significantly (p≤0.05) affected the Alpine dairy goat milk production.

There has been an increasing demand for functional foods with numerous health benefits due to intensified consumer awareness leading to a major shift in the consumption patterns of food. This has largely been attributed to increased lifestyle diseases across different populations. The use of food with nutraceutical and functional properties for management of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular problems is now gaining momentum among the public. Consequently, the consumption of chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) has increased in recent years particularly due to its high content of omega-3 fatty acids and dietary fiber. Chia seeds also contain high quality proteins which offer all the essential amino acids and several vital minerals. In addition, chia seeds are a potential source of antioxidants and polyphenolic compounds such as chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, myricetin, quercetin, and kaempferol with the major phenolic acid being rosmarinic. Owing to the rich nutritional profile, chia seeds provide numerous health benefits such as; cardiac protective and hepatic protective effects, anti-aging and anti-carcinogenic properties. The high amounts of dietary fibers present in the seeds also confer benefits by preserving good glycemic control thus helps in controlling diabetes mellitus. In addition to the numerous health benefits accrued to consumption of chia seeds, they have great potential in application in the food industry for; development of various baked products, production of biodegradable edible films, use as emulsifiers and stabilizers among other uses. This review provides an in-depth insight into the potential of chia crop in promoting nutrition and food security by providing comprehensive information pertaining to; its origin, cultivation and distribution, physical properties, nutritional characteristics, health benefits, functional properties and its potential use in the food industry. It evident that chia seeds contain superior nutritional components as compared to other seeds and also confers many health benefits such as antioxidative, anti-hypertensive and hypoglycemic properties among others. It possesses physical and functional properties that make it an excellent crop for use in food applications for the development of functional foods. Moreover, its application not only limited to food but can also be used for feed. Chia therefore demonstrates great potential as a crop that can be utilized for improved food and nutrition security.

Optimal nutrition in children is the cornerstone of good health (1) . About a third of the world's population lives in informal settlements, and the population is rapidly growing every year (2,3) . Poor livelihoods in informal settlements have been linked with poor nutrition and ill-health in children (3,4) . Childhood malnutrition is an underlying cause of the increased risk of infections, reduced quality of life, impaired physical, and cognitive development (4) . Even though poor nutrition affects the general population, children living in informal settlements have been reported to be more vulnerable to undernutrition, attributed to lack of basic needs and limited social infrastructure (5) . This study aimed to assess the determinants of nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months in Kiandutu informal settlement; Thika, Kenya.A community-based cross-sectional design was used in this study. Multi staged stratified sampling followed by systematic random sampling was used to recruit 170 caregivers with children aged 6-59 months from different households living in Kiandutu Informal Settlement, Thika, Kiambu County, Kenya. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Anthropometric measurements were performed using standardized tools and methods. Data were analyzed using WHO-Anthro Analyzer and IBM SPSS version 26.0.The results of this study revealed that 18.8% and 34.7%children were underweight and stunted. The prevalence of wasting using WHZ was 15.3% and 9% using MUAC. Children who were exclusively breastfed for less than 6 months were statistically associated with being underweight and stunted. Stunting and wasting was significantly associated with the house household decision-maker (p < 0.05), with children living in households whose decision-maker was the father, had a higher likelihood to develop wasting and stunting than those living in households whose decision-makers was the mother, both parents, and other family members. The type of food feed first to the child when complementary feeding was initiated was correlated with stunting (p < 0.05). Weight-for-height and height-for-age Z-scores were significantly associated with child wellness clinic visits for monthly check-ups (p <0.05). and child well clinic visits (p < 0.05. Wasting (MUAC) was significantly associated with child age group (p < 0.001), child breast feeding (p < 0.05), reports of diarrhea during the last two weeks' prior the survey (p < 0.01) and child wellness clinic visit (p = 0.05).It is evident that childhood malnutrition remains an important public health nutrition concern in informal settlements. There is a need to address access to sustainable diets, nutrition education, and improving livelihoods of populations in informal settlements.

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Chia oil is a valuable source of omega-3-fatty acids and other nutritional components. However, it is expensive to produce and can therefore be easily adulterated with cheaper oils to improve the profit margins. Spectroscopic methods are becoming more and more common in food fraud detection. The aim of this study was to answer following questions: Is it possible to detect chia oil adulteration by spectroscopic analysis of the oils? Is it possible to identify the adulteration oil? Is it possible to determine the amount of adulteration? Two chia oils from local markets were adulterated with three common food oils, including sunflower, rapeseed and corn oil. Subsequently, six chia oils obtained from different sites in Kenya were adulterated with sunflower oil to check the results. Raman, NIR and fluorescence spectroscopy were applied for the analysis. It was possible to detect the amount of adulterated oils by spectroscopic analysis, with a minimum R2 of 0.95 for the used partial least square regression with a maximum RMSEPrange of 10%. The adulterations of chia oils by rapeseed, sunflower and corn oil were identified by classification with a median true positive rate of 90%. The training accuracies, sensitivity and specificity of the classifications were over 90%. Chia oil B was easier to detect. The adulterated samples were identified with a precision of 97%. All of the classification methods show good results, however SVM were the best. The identification of the adulteration oil was possible; less than 5% of the adulteration oils were difficult to detect. In summary, spectroscopic analysis of chia oils might be a useful tool to identify adulterations.