Photo/FILE Families queue to receive relief food from the Kenya Red Cross Society at Lokichar in Turkana South District in the recent past. 
The national standards agency on Tuesday said that it had sampled the controversial Unimix food and found some batches to have been contaminated with aflatoxin.
The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) said that it had tested the product from Proctor & Allan’s manufacturing lines at the request of the Kenya Red Cross Society.
Kebs head of corporate communications Patricia Kimanthi said that on finding out that some batches of the Unimix contained aflatoxin above levels safe for consumption, they informed both parties.
“We duly informed them and emphasised their responsibility as good citizens to recall any products related to this particular consignment that could have been distributed to the public,” Ms Kimanthi told the Daily Nation on Tuesday.
This contradicts a statement made by both Public Health minister Beth Mugo and Proctor & Allan managing director Judy Macharia indicating that the contamination was discovered at distribution points. (READ: House summons minister over contaminated food)
Last week, in a ministerial statement, Mrs Mugo said that the contamination was discovered during routine sampling by the Red Cross while the food was being distributed to consumers.
“Routine sampling by the Kenya Red Cross was carried out during distribution to the targeted regions and the samples were analysed by Kebs, Ana Labs and SGS Laboratories,” she said. Some 726 schools had received the Unimix food, she added.
At a news conference in Nairobi last week, Ms Macharia said that their product was found to be contaminated after the food had left the warehouses.
This, she said, was a month after the Kenya Red Cross had collected the consignment from their factory. She said all the raw materials used to make the product were tested prior to processing.
But Red Cross secretary-general Abbas Gullet insisted that the food had been contaminated at the source.