The Daily Nation published an article titled “Rogue millers put profit above consumer health” on August 25, 2021, that is inaccurate and misleading. The article states that millers are deliberately processing maize that is contaminated by Aflatoxins and selling this flour to consumers.
The author did not contact the CMA to get clarifications or give us an opportunity to respond to the claims made by KEBS. As such the article was heavily skewed towards KEBS which goes against the Nation Media Group’s policy on accurate reporting.
- We have always made it very clear we support the work done by our regulatory agencies and especially KEBS when it comes to food safety. 40 of our millers have already been trained by KEBS on HACCP and we have had many capacity building sessions with KEBS to ensure that our consumers have access to safe and nutritious food.
- In the past, CMA has specifically asked for KEBS to follow due process whereby the affected party would be given adequate notice of the nature of the non-compliance if any and a reasonable opportunity for the affected party to make its representation. This would help millers understand the nature of the problem and deal with it to ensure that if indeed KEBS’ results accurately revealed a problem in the affected products, proper recall procedures would be initiated to get the products off the market as effectively as possible for specific batches rather than condemning wholesale the entire product.
- It is unfortunate that while the KEBS press statement went out on Friday 20 August, yet most millers were only informed on the day and the rest on Monday 23 August, that their products were ‘non-compliant’.
- In some cases, due diligence was not done on batch numbers and some of the batches quoted did not belong to the specific companies mentioned. KEBS has also admitted to an error on some of the companies mentioned in the press release, where there was a confusion in permits.
- If a specific batch of production has been stated as having an issue, that particular batch would be recalled and not the entire production by a particular company. Condemning the entire product is punitive and uncalled for.
These are some of the factors we believe lacked in the Daily Nation’s story and omitting these facts did not give an accurate portrayal of issues facing the industry. Had KEBS just followed due procedure, most of these issues would have been resolved effectively and without undue reputational damage.
Unfortunately, KEBS’s move has eroded trust in millers who are compliant thereby moving consumers to the unregulated market.
As stated in a notice we shared, the Cereal Millers Association (CMA) has a very strict code of conduct for members which includes rigorous testing for Aflatoxins. We have invested in heavily in testing, capacity building for our members and we remain committed to providing safe food to our consumers.
Finally, there is always this inherent misconception that millers are not addressing aflatoxins in maize. Much needs to be done around regulating farming practices, post-harvest handling of maize, monitoring and enforcing adequate quality along the maize value chain. It is inefficient and cost prohibitive to put all the responsibility of aflatoxin mitigation solely onto the millers’ shoulders. It is also very unfortunate that there is hardly any evidence of contaminated maize along the value chain being destroyed by Government agencies, which ultimately finds its way back into the food chain.
