The chicken served at some popular fast food cafes in Nairobi could be laced with a toxic cocktail of bacteria and in some cases, chemicals that could cause cancer. - DN
Tests commissioned by the @dailynation show that the ready-to-eat chicken is contaminated with bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella, staphylococcus, enterobacteriaceae and coliforms. - DN
Ready to eat chicken also tested positive for sodium metabisulphite, a preservative that scientists have said causes cancer if consumed in large amounts. - DN
While proper cooking and handling should eliminate most of these bacteria, these cases point to shocking laxity in public health standards at the sampled fast food cafes. - DN
The presence of these bacteria points a direct finger to bad cooking and hygiene practices, because they indicate that the meat has been in contact with fecal matter. The person handling this food is either not cooking it properly or is not washing hands after visiting the toilet
Raw chicken from a supermarket was also found to be contaminated with the same bacteria. - DN
Chicken should be washed before cooking to reduce bacterial contamination, although washing had limited effect on chemical contaminants. - DN
There have been incidents of meat, especially beef, being preserved with formalin, the chemical used to preserve bodies in the mortuary. Washing would not eliminate this or the sodium metabisulphite as the chemical usually penetrates into the very fibre of the meat. - DN
Be wary of butcheries that seem to be completely free of houseflies since flies avoid meat that has been chemically preserved with formalin - Dr. Wahome
Milk, fruits and vegetables are also compromised, leaving Kenyans with limited options for safe foods and contributing to a growing disease-burden that continues to clog health facilities and derail economic development. - DN
ALERT: Investigations by the @dailynation show that your morning smoothie made of spinach, mango, banana and yoghurt is unsafe and could be slowly poisoning you.
The fresh leafy spinach you bought from the kiosk is laden with harmful bacteria, the milk has raised concerns from the Kenya Dairy Board whose tests show that it is toxic with bacteria and the mangoes and bananas have been artificially ripened using calcium carbide - DN
Calcium Carbide CaC2 is a chemical notorious for depriving the neurological system of oxygen leading to disorders as serious as seizures. - DN
The spinach tested by the laboratory commissioned by this newspaper was found to contain high levels of coliforms and enterobacteriaceae. - DN
Several other local studies have found that fruits, leafy vegetables contain high levels of pesticide residue & heavy metals, because of unscrupulous farming practices such as using contaminated water,failing to wait out the requisite period of time between spraying & harvesting.
In January this year, @kalrokilimo raised the alarm about a possible aflatoxin outbreak in parts of the country later this year. - DN
Kenya has no definitive statistics on food-borne illnesses since the government’s focus in recent years has tended to dwell on non-communicable diseases, malaria and HIV/AIDS. - DN
A @WHO study found that contaminated food was the cause of 600 million illnesses in 2010. Out of these, 420,000 cases resulted in death. - DN
The @WHO study also found that food-borne illnesses were disproportionately more common in developing countries, noting that “people in developing countries often have difficulty coping with food-borne disease”. - DN
Diarrhoeal diseases are the number one killer of children aged five years and below and the second deadliest killer among all other age groups. - DN
It has long been suspected that a good quantity of vegetables eaten in Nairobi are grown with untreated sewage water. - DN
Supermarkets seem to take a level of care for how they source food products, as evidenced by the lower levels of contaminants in their samples in comparison with those sold in open-air markets. - DN
Best practices in other countries protect citizens by imposing a battery of regulations and legislations on food, which are strictly implemented and enforced, ensuring that the food that ends up on people’s plates is safe. - DN
The export market has shown that Kenya has great capacity for standardising food sourcing, packaging and marketing. - DN
In Kenya, food safety regulations are scattered over several government agencies, creating a bizarre situation where it is difficult to pin point who is fully responsible for the safety of food that Kenyans eat. - DN
National Food Safety Coordination Committee (NFSCC) was established to coordinate interagency efforts and to attempt to streamline the implementation of 22 food safety and quality legislations that have been passed through various Acts of Parliament over the years. - DN
Although the NFSCC was a step forward, Kenya operates without a comprehensive food safety and nutrition policy, a document that has been introduced in Parliament several times without ever seeing the light of day. - DN
Successive ministers of health, dating back to when @mamangilu held the office (from 2003 to 2007) have tried to have it passed into law with no success. - DN
Currently, the Department of Public Health under @MOH_Kenya acts as the secretariat to the NFSCC, effectively making it responsible for the coordination of food safety efforts in the country. The man in charge of this department is Dr Kepha Ombacho. - DN
ALERT: The food we are buying is not only filthy but also highly contaminated and poisonous bit.ly/2FkH8Zk
