Nairobi News

HashtagNews

Kebs bans Dola, Kifaru, Jembe, 2 other maize flour brands over aflatoxin

By Joseph Ndunda November 9th, 2019 2 min read

The Kenya Bureau of Standards on Saturday warned public against consuming five brands of maize flou.

Kebs said the brands did not meet the standards during market surveillance on various maize flour products in the market. The surveillance was done under routine checks and after multiple complaints by public.

The brands are Dola Maize Meal by Kitui Flour Mills, Kifaru Maize Meal by Alpha Grain Limited, Starehe Maize Meal by Pan African Grain Millers, 210 Two Ten Maize Meal Kenblest Limited and Jembe Maize Meal Kensalrise Limited

“Following consistent market surveillance and testing, it has been established that the brands in the have failed because their levels of aflatoxin is higher than the maximum limit allowed by relevant Kenya Standards,” Kebs said in a statement.

INSTRUCTED SUPERMARKETS

“KEBS has also seized a number of these products and has instructed supermarkets countrywide to remove the same from their shelves. The affected manufacturers will therefore be required to institute corrective actions whose effectiveness shall be confirmed by KEBS before the suspension of permits is lifted.”

The agency has suspended the permits of the manufacturers who are no longer allowed to manufacture or sell the affected maize meal products.

The manufacturers are required to recall all the substandard maize meal products from the market and institute corrective actions.

KEBS carries out product certification scheme where manufacturers are required to implement supervision and control during manufacturing to ensure quality of products.

The agency issues a permit to a manufacturer to use the standardisation mark on a product after it has undertaken factory inspection and tested samples of the products.

The manufacturer is required to observe the certification scheme of supervision for a year during which the certificate remains valid.

Kebs warned members of public to be on the lookout and inform KEBS of any products suspected to be substandard.