Kebs says impounded sugar is ‘generally safe’ for use
Loaders offload sugar that was stopped on grounds it contains mercury and copper. More than 500,000 tonnes so far intercepted in ongoing crackdown. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Moses Ikiara, the Kebs acting managing director, told a joint Parliament team probing importation of sugar that the tests have been drawn from 17 out of 41 counties whose samples were taken.
Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) on Tuesday told MPs that sugar recently impounded was “generally safe” after only two of 66 samples tested on 1.27 million bags was found to be contaminated with copper and lead.
Moses Ikiara, the Kebs acting managing director, told a joint Parliament team probing importation of sugar that the tests have been drawn from 17 out of 41 counties whose samples were taken.
“After testing 1,266,351 bags of sugar, we have been able to find that except for two samples taken in Eastleigh and Ruiru, which had traces of copper and lead, we haven’t found heavy metals like mercury in that sugar,” said Mr Ikiara.
“Generally, the sugar is safe but we have seen failures ranging from 20 to 30 per cent in moisture content, yeast and moulds, colour, total viable count and polarisation,” Mr Ikiara said.
He told MPs that results for the remaining counties will be out in two days and that Kebs was unable to get samples for six counties largely drawn from the border areas because of insecurity and human resource capacity.
Of the total samples, Mr Ikiara said those lacking enough information on the quantity of bags for each sample is 13 representing a total of 271,675 bags.
“The number of those samples that complied is four and the number failing samples is nine,” he said.
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