Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on Tuesday cautioned that some food processing companies operating in the country have not been meeting the set quality standards of production.
According to Kagwe, this poses a major threat to millions of Kenyans and urged the companies to adhere to the highest standards of production to ensure better health and well-being of the population.
Speaking in Nairobi during the launch of a sustainability report for bio foods products limited, the health CS said unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances causes more than 200 different diseases ranging from diarrhea to cancers.
“Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. And as many of you may know, we are dealing with a huge cancer burden in the country that we must do everything possible to arrest,” said CS Kagwe.
He said the Ministry of Health is making a deliberate shift towards the promotion of family health at the core of which is the promotion of clean environments.
“We must as a country ensure we do not use any banned substances or any other with potential to cause harm in the production chain, that is in the farm whether as pesticides, or fertilizers or during processing as additives or preservatives,” added Kagwe.
At the same time, the private sector was challenged to be ambassadors of hygiene across all 47 counties.
He further said the ministry is mulling introducing an indicator survey that will rank counties based on how they have achieved and maintained cleanliness.
