KENYA – The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has implored local manufacturers and importers to conform to the 205 new standards which have been developed targeting various products, to boost their competitiveness.
This was during the inaugural Emerging Standards Workshop to assess their implementation. KEBS developed and published the new standards categorized into seven categories in the third quarter of Financial Year 2021/2022 (January to March 2022).
Bernard Njiraini, KEBS Managing Director, said manufacturers are expected to ensure they adhere to the new standards when six months window after gazettement elapses in December this year.
“It is our belief that this platform will create a better understanding of standards and their importance to the country and our day-to-day lives. May this be a step of inculcating a culture of quality in Kenya,” said Njiraini.
The MD noted that adoption of the new standards will ensure Kenyan products become competitive on the world stage as they will be used in their different sectors to spur the growth of our industries.
The Food and Agriculture sector has had five new standards developed for the tea industry which includes code of practice standard and raw materials extraction specification, dairy cattle feed premix specification, poultry feed premises specification and compounded indigenous (kienyeji) chicken feed specification.
In March, it developed 28 new standards for agro-processing and agriculture products, encompassing adoption of Codex standards primed to manage food allergens, corrigenda on dried peaches as well as grading of meat and poultry products.
The standard, KS EAS 38:2014, requires the declaration of allergen status on products that commonly cause allergic reactions. Food allergen has over the years emerged as a critical safety issue of concern with the population increasingly developing different allergies to food products.
It also developed the KS 2945:202, KS 2774-5:2021 and KS 2774-6:2021, in a quest to standardize and uphold better animal welfare standards in poultry industrial systems, which has increasingly become a matter of global interest.
The standards will ensure that the poultry supply chain improves the well-being of poultry by reducing handling and transport stress, addressing customer expectations and regulatory oversight and minimize mortalities.
Other standards that the Bureau has approved include prerequisite programmes for transportation and storage of grains and determination of moisture content on whole grains and milled grains.
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