Kenya Bureau of Standards plans to set up a laboratory in Nyeri to test aflatoxin.
Rowland Ogembo, the KEBS officer in charge of Meru office, said Nyeri is a maize growing and animal feeds production region, which necessitates quality checks.
“As you are aware, aflatoxin is a contaminant. So that is the first step to safeguard the quality of meat and even the milk products,” he said.
He said the Nyeri lab, which will serve nine counties, will be set up in the next financial year.
“So far what we have established in the Nyeri office is calibration laboratory. We have a calibration laboratory which is up and running,” he said.
A calibration laboratory is used for measuring the accuracy of weather measuring devices used mostly by the meteorological department.
Ogembo said this in Nyeri town during an annual innovation pipeline workshop on Thursday.
Ziana Mohamed, the marketing manager of Kebs, said the workshop was developed by Kebs in conjunction with other partners.
The aim, she added, was to ensure small and medium-sized enterprises in the country can develop their products seamlessly from conception until their businesses are commercialised.
“It is obviously a great challenge for business people to access all these information. They have to go to so many areas,” she said.
“So we felt if we all come together, partner and provide this information in a one stop shop, we will take away from these business people those challenges and difficulties of accessing information.”
