Government clarifies suspension of 10 cooking oil brands by KEBS.
Last week, the Kenya Bureau of standards suspended 10 cooking oil brands from the market.
Also read KEBS suspends 10 cooking oil brands; Details
However, today September 26th, The government clarifies suspension of the 10 cooking oil brands.
The government stated that only the batches mentioned in their statement to the press were found to contain a higher level of iron exceeding the 2.5 mark permitted by Kenya’s regulations.
Example Bahari Fry of batch number 1.07921 was found not good for consumption as well as FF1L17487D batch of Fresh Fri and FF500175260 batch of Fresh Fri with Garlic oil.
Additional batches were 8941D of Fry Mate, 105948 of Olive Gold, 0210322B of Postman, 0340522B of Rina, SS1L17472D of Salit, 152222A of Tilly and OL4A3 MF9.25.05.22 of Top Fry.
The government through the ministry of industrialization has clarified that other brands are safe for consumption.
The government said,”We wish to reassure the public that whatever else’s is in the market from the respective brands is the safe and there is no cause for alarm. The purpose of this meeting was to build consensus on the way forward.”
This comes after the KEBS managing director, Njiraini stated that the 10 cooking oil brands were suspected of containing a great amount of iron.
Njiraini said,” We did a surveillance starting June to the month of July and August. We did detect non-compliance in terms of the iron content levels where the standard is very clear. we should have a minimum of 2.5.”
“When we collected samples from various shops, we detected it was slightly higher and that is the reason we decided to inform the manufacturers and distributors that whatever does not meet the requirements need to be withdrawn or recalled. That is to ensure we are all in compliance with the laws.” Njiraini added.