Kenya grapples with maize contamination
Full details
| Authors & editors | |
| Publisher | Milling & Grain |
| Year of publication | 2019 February |
| Languages | |
| Medium | Digital |
| Edition | 1 |
| Topics | |
| Tags | |
| Scope & content | By Shem Oirere, Freelance journalist The level of aflatoxin in maize, produced or imported and stored in East Africa, continues to be a cause for concern among the region’s consumers and millers, on the back of a weak regulatory framework and uncoordinated approach in tackling the contamination. Kenya has become the latest country to report new incidents of aflatoxin contamination of maize imported recently, to tackle a famine crisis triggered by prolonged drought in early 2017. “KEBS says 256 of the samples collected from maize depots in 37 of the Kenya’s 47 counties, were tested at its Nairobi laboratories and found to be unfit for human consumption, because they contained mycotoxins which the World Health Organization describes “toxic compounds that are naturally produced by certain types of fungi and grows on cereals, dried fruits, nuts and spices.” The affected maize is estimated to be worth US $74 million"… Read more |
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