National

Imported cooking oil safe for consumption - Kebs

Edible Oil Manufacturers warn tax hikes in Finance Bill could trigger food crisis (Photo: New Food Magazine)

By Dennis Tarus | Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Kebs in a statement on Wednesday, said they had sampled, re-inspected and tested the edible oils imported by KNTC.

The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has now come out to declare that the edible oils imported by the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) are safe for consumption.

Kebs in a statement on Wednesday, said they had sampled, re-inspected and tested the edible oils imported by KNTC.

Keep reading

"From the tests done, the edible oil complied with all the health and safety parameters of the applicable Kenya Standard (KS EAS 769: 2019). However, the sampled edible oils did not meet the Vitamin A levels specified in the Kenyan Standard,” read the statement by Kebs.

However, Kebs further clarified that the Vitamin A levels were not a health and safety parameter and that they had already communicated the results to KNTC.

Kebs had on September 5 written a letter to the KNTC Managing Director, advising him to reship the consignment back to its country of origin for failing to meet its safety standards.

The media had first raised the alarm over the importation by firms owned by persons with links to high government officials who were single-sourced to procure edible oils and deliver them to KNTC.

It was reported later that the DCI was looking into the irregular KNTC import tenders for edible oils valued at Sh16.5 billion with the Managing Director of KNTC being among those quizzed.