The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) now says there is no cause for alarm regarding the indomie noodles that have so far faced a market ban in Egypt and Rwanda. KEBS on Thursday revealed that there is no connection between the products recalled in Egypt and the ones in Kenya.
“We did not import any products from Egypt, however, we have a local manufacturer of Indomie instant noodles called Salim Wazaran. Of course, the brand or trademark could be a franchise, but the company manufacturing this product is sourcing their raw materials locally and importing some ingredients.” KEBS Managing Director Bernard Njiraini said.
Testing on the safety of instant noodles is currently underway at the KEBS biochemical testing laboratory in Nairobi.
“We have received 94 instant noodles samples from our market surveillance teams, and at the moment the test requests are on two, that is the pesticide residues and aflatoxins.”
“Preliminary investigations show there are no excess aflatoxins beyond the 10 ppb that is required of the standard. However, for pesticides, the tests will take slightly longer…because we’re talking about 4 hours to get one sample ready. And when we talk of pesticide residues, we’re not talking of one, it is a very big population of around 80 pesticides being done in one sample,” Tom Oduor, Ag. Head of testing at KEBS says.
Testing on the safety of the most cooked fast food in many Kenyan households began after issues regarding health safety were raised by Egyptian authorities, which saw the product banned in the Egyptian market over health concerns.
Egypt withdrew 733,340 cartons of different Indomie products from the local market after they were found to contain a “proportion of aflatoxins and pesticide residues that exceed the safe limits allowed for human consumption.”
The Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) Competition Commission (CCA) warned that similar products as those flagged by Egyptian authorities are being imported and marketed in member States that include Kenya.
Rwanda was the second country to ban the product, which it imports from Kenya amid claims of health concerns over their safety.
On May 10, the Food and Drugs Authority Ghana also announced to have initiated investigations on the safety of the product, warning the citizens against consuming it.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), when people come into contact with large quantities of pesticides, acute poisoning or long-term health effects, including cancer and adverse effects on reproduction can occur.
Read More: Indomie Unfit for Human Consumption, COFEK Warns Kenyans