GOVERNMENT ISSUES NEW WARNING AS NEW DETAILS EMERGE.

The government through the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) has made a public investigation regarding the widespread manufacture of underweight bread.

In a statement released on Monday, May 24, the authority raised an alarm over the brazen disregard of manufacturing guidelines by the companies pertaining to nutrients and weight of their products.

The investigation discovered that some manufacturers had ran false marketing campaigns promising that some loaves contained milk and butter when they did not.

Other companies did not print the manufacture dates on their wrappers while on others, the information was not legible enough.

“Specifically, the undertakings were not providing the manufacturing date/month on their bread wrappers in the prescribed format while others were printing them illegibly on the seals. In other cases, the manufacturers omitted the applicable month in the expiry dates.

“Additionally, the manufacturers failed to provide the weight of their bread products and ingredients, while others marketed their bread as fortified but did not specify the alleged nutrients/vitamins used. Some brands misled consumers that their products contained milk or butter whereas they did not,” read the report in part.

As a result, the report directed the manufacturers to print manufacture and supply date on the wrappers in a legible format.

CAK Director General Kariuki Wang’ombe noted that it was the right of consumers to access accurate and timely information regarding the products they purchase.

Towards the end of April, police in Migori County impounded 50 crates of loaves which they indicated were underweight.

The police disclosed that they had taken samples from a lorry that was transporting the loaves for testing, only for them to realise that the bread was underweight.

“The lorry had around 770 loaves, we took a random sample of 56 loaves, when we tested, we found that the average weight was 365.2g, it had a deficiency of 35.2g,” an officer stated at the time.

This comes even as the cost of bread continues to shoot up due to the increase in wheat prices.

Sourced from Ekenyan