Dola among 17 maize brands unfit for human consumption - KeBS

KeBS has asked supermarkets to pull out 17 maize brands for having high aflatoxin levels.

The brands include; Jomba, Adardere Mupa, Afya, Uzima, Sungura, Dola, Tetema,African King, Unique, Mlo, City Corn, Sarafina, Tosha, Shiba, Hakika Best, Budget and Wema.

"While conducting its mandate of market surveillance, KEBS tested maize meal brands and has found some of them to contain levels of aflatoxins higher that the requirement," director market surveillance Peter Kaigwara said.

In a statement on Thursday, Kaigwara said the maize brands are unsafe for human consumption. 

"This is to request you to pull those products out of supermarkets shelves. We wil make arrangements to collect them," he added.

Maize is the country's main staple. The flour is used to prepare ugali, a cooked starchy paste the key ingredients of which are just the flour and water.

Maize is also used to prepare another traditional dish of the region, githeri, which is a mixture of maize and beans, cooked whole.

Last year, KeBs suspended the licences of five brands of maize flour and ordered that they be removed from the market.

These are Dola, manufactured by Kitui Flour Mills, Starehe made by Pan African Grain and Kifaru by Alpha Grain Limited.

The other banned brands are 210 (Kenblest Limited) and Jembe by Kensalrise Limited. All these brands are widely sold across the country.