Here Is why that Chinese Fish Could Be Killing You!

I stumbled upon an article on Daily Nation that explained to Kenyans how poisonous the fishes ferried from China are yet the Government has allowed them into the country.

The fish quantities from Lake Victoria had declined by about 23 percent and the demand for fish prompted the Government to seek fish from outside the country. And China is the only country that always has its doors wide open for Kenya.

China started supplying to Kenya at even lower prices. Later on, the fish was suspected to be dangerous which forced stakeholders to conduct an investigation.

Chinese fish was proven to be very dangerous to human beings. After it was subjected to several lab tests, the results were really shocking, and the amount of lead in a fish sample was 427 times the recommended amount.

How Poisonous is Chinese Fish?

Lead is a metal that has a number of uses but is very toxic to humans in case it is inhaled or ingested.

World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization recommend that only 0.1 ppm can be allowed in food ingested by humans, any amount beyond that could pose a serious threat to the health of the consumer.

According to Utah State University, “Most cases of lead poisoning are due to chronic low-dose exposure. Since symptoms of slow lead poisoning are mainly emotional and mental in nature, lead poisoning may be the last thing people suspect.”

Lead can delay physical and mental development in babies and young children. In adults, the slow accumulation of lead can result in kidney and nervous system damage, anemia, stroke or cancer, infertility, and blood pressure.

If taken in excess, Lead can lead to immediate death. It is thus feared because the metal affects every body organ including the heart, the immune system, kidneys, the reproductive system, digestion system and the rest.

Despite the concerns raised by the local daily, where some fish were found to have traces of lead, mercury, arsenic, and copper, the Kenya Bureau of Standards denied the claims stating that the fish was fit for human consumption.

Shocking Findings after Lab Tests were done on Fish samples.

After the investigators bought Fish samples from Kisumu for the sake of proving whether the fish was fit for human consumption or not, they took the fish to Nairobi University for laboratory tests.

The researchers were startled to find out that the fish samples had seven dangerous pesticides that included phosalone, which was detected at 0.07 parts per million (ppm), seven times more than the maximum allowable limit (MAL) of 0.01 ppm.

Other than phosalane, the fish from China had pestilcides like tolyfluanid (0.022 ppm), flutonail (0.022ppm), deltamethrin (0.026ppm), acrinathrin (0.005ppm), pretilachlor (0.005) and tebufenpyrad at 0.001ppm.

Then comes lead, which was found to be 42.7 ppm.if this is compared to WHO|FAO’s recommendation, it is about 427 times more than the allowable 0.1 ppm.

Another shocking revelation was that the Chinese importers presented the clean fish to KEBS for testing just to get import certificates then after they were cleared in, the dirty game began.

Further investigations revealed that at the time the concerns were first raised in 2019, the Chinese fish were taken to Kisumu and repackaged together with the local fish. This was to make it difficult for traders to determine whether the fishes were imported or were locally sourced.

The Chinese fish is shipped 8000 kilometers away from Kenya and it would take days or weeks before the cargo is offloaded at the port of Mombasa. After clearance from the port, it is then taken to Kisumu by road, another 1000 kilometer covered just to ensure the fish is processed and ready for the market.

The distance it covers from China to Kenya is not a real deal, the deal is why it is cheaper as compared to the locally sourced one? And this was when eyebrows were raised.

A local fish goes at 500 shillings per kilogram while the Chinese fish go at 230 shillings for the same amount, who are we Kenyans to go for expensive things yet we have cheaper ones at our disposal?

Who is to blame?

Someone once said, “The Government of Kenya hates Kenyans and it does not hide it.”According to the way it has been behaving lately, this statement is not far from the truth.

KEBS, Ministry of Health are the stakeholders who should ensure that we consume uncontaminated food but maybe, they knew what was happening but they remained mum.

When the issue was raised that Kenyans could be consuming contaminated fish from China, KEBS responded by saying, “All imports to Kenya are required to be tested in the country of origin and if they meet the specifications in the standards they are issued with a certificate of conformity. Upon arrival in Kenya, the imports are subjected to destination inspection.”

The fish is not the first time Kenyans have discovered that they are consuming health-threatening foods, we had sugar that had mercury, we had peanut butter that had higher amounts of aflatoxins, then we had maize floor, our only staple food contaminated with excess amounts of aflatoxins…

What have we not consumed that does not take us closer to our graves? Somebody must be sleeping on their jobs!