KEBS gives Gental Care sanitizer green light, lifts suspension

Gental Care Sanitizer will make its way back to the market 10 days after it was suspended in a sanitizer purge that saw Kenya Bureau of Standards(KEBS) flag and suspend eight brands of sanitizers for not meeting the required standards.

A statement by Bidco the mother company of Gental Care says, “We have received confirmation from KEBS, in writing, that Gental Care Hand Sanitizer is fully compliant with set standards and meets all measures on quality and safety.”

The company which is a giant in the Fast-moving consumer goods industry immediately came to the defence of its product following the suspension of the sanitizer from the market. Bidco company had earlier complained of not received any official communication from KEBS on any non-conformity or irregularity of test results conducted on a particular batch number or samples of Gental Care Hand Sanitizer which is something required by law.

It is on those grounds that the company asked the Standards body to conduct retesting of the batch that failed to meet the 60 per cent alcohol level specifications which according to them did not match the results they had from independent laboratories.

According to the statement, Gental Care has also set a bold move to rise above the required alcohol content just to be safe from future incidences that would taint their image and consumer confidence in their product.
“We have chosen to go over and above the required dosage of alcohol content of 60 per cent to 70 per cent to offer better protection and that is what is now available,” read the statement.

According to KEBS, all hand sanitizers must have a minimum of 60 per cent alcohol concentration, something that many producers have failed to meet. With the coronavirus hanging over the country like a haunting ghost, KEBS has intensified its crackdown on any sanitizer company that produces anything under 60 per cent alcohol content which would be unable to disinfect a virus from surfaces and hands.

Out of the eight sanitizers that were purged from the list of effective sanitizers, only Gental Care has been given the green light to make a comeback into the market.