Uasin Gishu County working on policy to boost food safety standards

Uasin Gishu County is working on a bill that seeks to protect consumers from toxic chemicals in agricultural produce.

County deputy governor Daniel Chemno said they are working on stringent regulations to ensure produce that fail to meet safety standards do not reach the market.

“We want to be the first county to enact safety food standards. At the moment, locals are buying horticultural produce which has residue of pesticides and other chemicals,” he said.

Chemno pointed out that there is a possibility that the chemical residues in green produce is to blame for the rise in cancer cases. He said chemicals like antibiotics are being released into animal products posing a serious health risk to humans.He said the policy is ready and will soon be tabled before the County assembly for final approval.

“The law, once passed, will ensure that there is thorough scrutiny of milk, meat, vegetables and fruits suppliers to ascertain the safety of their produce. Just like in Europe, we want to thoroughly focus on the rule of origin because most foodstuffs are not counter checked and may likely be contributing to diseases like cancer,” he said.

The deputy governor noted that based on research, 70 per cent of antibiotics have lost their effectiveness due to the fact that consumers consume traces of it in milk and meat products.

“In other countries, milk is pasteurised before consumption which is not the case here, we are determined to fight cancer which is a big pandemic, through food safety policies,” he added.