Dairy board issues alert over the sale of contaminated milk

The Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) has issued an alert over the sale by local retailers of contaminated milk powder bought from unregistered suppliers.

The industry watchdog last week said in a confidential market surveillance report that many importers of the milk are not registered and their products are unapproved, posing a health hazard to consumers.

KDB’s list of unregistered importers includes Ruiru-based Alidi Kenya Limited, Safacom Trading Company, RH Devani Company, Jacky’s Kenya, and Roza Kind East Africa.

The board said some of the imported milk powder on sale had in the past been declared unfit for human consumption due to the presence of adulterants such as melamine, heavy metals such as lead, and radioactive materials.

“Some of these brands cannot be traced, verified or tied to any of the permits the board issued in the recent past. This is the reason the board has embarked on removing these products from the retail market and to prefer charges against the traders,” the KDB said in a statement signed by acting managing director Humphrey Maina.

“The quality and safety of such products cannot be verified as there were no regulatory controls during the importation process,” he said.

Alidi Kenya Limited, which launched operations in Kenya in 2013, is a Russian logistics company that has since been appointed by Nestlé as the sole distributor of its products in Kenya.

The Business Daily could not reach Alidi Kenya’s managing director Danila Medvedev for comment.

“There is need to investigate Nido brands to confirm if they are original products of Nestlé,” the board says in the report.

The decision comes barely a year after the Indian government banned the sale of Nestlé noodles in the country after they were found to contain excessive lead. A court later overturned the decision.

READ: India seeks damages over Nestle's Maggi noodles

The KDB said most of the unknown brands on sale in the market are usually rebranded to disguise them as certified products from United Arab Emirates.

“Reports indicate that the source of smuggled milk powder is Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate,” the board says.

“We know there are many brands of powdered milk available in the local market whose origin no one can tell.

The list includes Nido, Hilwa, Hayat, Hilla, Nura, Anchor, Coast, Aaron, Cow Gate, SMA and Nafdac. There is a separate list of products, including Kenya Highland, Hayat, Hilwa, Emborg and Dutch Lady which the regulator has certified as not fit for consumption.

“The records with the board show that UAE exports ice cream products but not powder milk,” added the report. The regulator had last week warned in a notice published in the local dailies that the brands are not fit for consumption.

“Our recent survey of the retail markets discovered that some of these outlets are selling imported products that may have been brought into the country through unauthorised means,” the board said.

Increased market surveillance is meant to ensure only quality and safe products are sold in the local markets to avoid disruption of home-grown dairy enterprises through dumping of contraband products.

The board has named Naivas, Eastmatt and Tuskys in the list of retailers that have been buying and stocking some of the banned brands.

Eastmatt Supermarket, an emerging retailer, is accused of stocking the brands at its Mfangano branch. According to the dairy board, its importers or suppliers are neither registered with KDB nor the Kenya Trade Network Agency.

But Naivas Supermarket managing director David Kimani told the Business Daily in an interview that the brands they are accused of selling have a permit from the KDB.

“These are just side-shows because the said suppliers have approval from the Kenya Dairy Board. If there is truth in what they are saying, the best thing would be to raid and get the products out of the shelves,” said Mr Kimani.

The dairy board has now ordered the removal of mentioned brands from the supermarket shelves.