A report by the local media group, the Nation, has highlighted food safety concerns for produce sold in Kenyan open-air markets and supermarket chains. The growing concern over the safety of Kenyan food and its affect on health, has led to a rise in businesses that focus on "farm to fork" products and organic home delivery services.
Nutrition students at Kenyatta University in Nairobi found bananas, apples, oranges, and mangoes, as well as fruit from three supermarkets in Nairobi, contained high levels of calcium carbide—a chemical used to make fruit ripen quicker that is also used in welding. Researchers also found high levels of lead in kale, one of the country’s most commonly eaten vegetables.
This isn’t the first time food safety has come under scrutiny in Kenya, where it is managed by 17 different agencies and over 20 laws. Previous studies have discovered kale laced with levels of heavy metals and coliform, a bacteria found in animal and human fecal matter, beyond what the World Health Organization deems safe.
Businesses like Kalimoni Greens, founded by a former marketing executive, Kitchen Soko by former tech execs, and Mlango Farm, run by a couple with a farm outside of Nairobi, which focus on delivering organic produce, are becoming more common as a response to concerns over Kenyan food safety.
According to Bitange Ndemo, an associate professor at the University of Nairobi’s business school, these starts ups are investing in logistics—like their own dedicated delivery fleets—to get around the shortcomings of the current infrastructure, which could be partly to blame for substandard food safety.
