Weetabix East Africa Limited has become the first food manufacturer in Kenya to be certified and accredited by the Kenya Nutritionists &Dietitians Institute in compliance with the amended KNDI Act of 2015 assuring Kenyans of high quality products from the company.
The accreditation is the second step in a three part process that saw Weetabix undergo a stringent assessment of its factory and processes to ensure that they were up to standard.
The key 14 areas of inspection by KNDI during the assessment are: facility and equipment, availability of references and resources,utilities, raw materials, ingredients and trusted products, production of food, packaging & label delivery, quality assurance, quality control,quality related events, quality improvement activities, personnel on site, standard operating procedures, implementation of standard operating procedures and marketing, labeling and nutrition claims.
The Act states that KNDI must inspect and certify all premises that prepare and sell food and food supplements, register all food manufacturers, analyze samples of food or food supplements to ascertain the composition.
The Act among other things ensures high quality foods that meet the institutes’ standard and prohibits the sale of unwholesome, poisonous or adulterated food or food supplements. Failure to comply with the ACT will lead to stiff penalties as stated in Part 23, Section A to H. The certification is also renewed annually upon re-inspection.
“We are honoured to be the first food manufacturer in Kenya to be certified and accredited by KNDI. The accreditation testifies to our day to day culture of adhering to the strictest of global standards when manufacturing our products. “As Weetabix, we believe and are passionate about self-regulation and maintaining stringent internal quality standards – a key requirement to attain the KNDI accreditation. As a result we are confident that our products are of the utmost nutritional quality, attested by the fact that onsite we consume our own products for breakfast and offer the same to visitors”, said Ahsan Manji, Managing Director, Weetabix East Africa Ltd.
Weetabix currently conforms to ISO 9001:2008 QMS documentation certified by SGS, KEBS Standardisation marks (S-Mark, ISM andPIVOC) as well as Bureau Veritas (BVQI) for external raw material and product analysis. As part of continuous improvement, Weetabix will be upgrading its ISO certification to ISO 9001:2015, HACCP and Lean Six Sigma certifications.
“Most importantly, we remain committed to the health of Kenyans and will continue to do all we can to ensure that all Kenyans enjoy a healthy nutritious breakfast alternative in Weetabix,” said Ahsan Manji, Managing Director, Weetabix East Africa Ltd.
“In 2014 and in keeping with our brand promise and vision, we started a journey of working towards endorsement from KNDI for the purpose of showing our consumers that we are authentic in the claims that we make about our products. “We believe in the gravity of the KNDI accreditation which will help us sustain our position as the leading breakfast brand in the country,’ continued Ahsan Manji, Managing Director, Weetabix East Africa.
The process towards endorsement which will take three to six months for Weetabix is a three part process that begins with KNDI registration then premise inspection and licensing after which the company is accredited and certified. The last step in the process is analyzing the product to ensure among other things that the food manufacturer is authentic in the claims that it makes about its products, namely, produced from wholegrain wheat therefore high in fibre, low in salt, low in fats and does not contain any food preservatives.
The company is now exploring partnership opportunities with KNDI to drive a national focus on the right nutrition as a prevention of lifestyle diseases.The goal of KNDI is to provide an enabling environment for the sustained improvement of the nutrition and dietary status of all Kenyans.
“KNDI believes in setting Gold Standards for Nutrition and Dietetics and therefore recommends Hiring of Nutritionists to work with the team in the product development unit in Food Industries”, said the Honorable Professor Julia Ojiambo, Chairperson of KNDI.
In 2015, Weetabix launched a campaign dubbed ‘What did you have for Breakfast?’ which aimed at educating consumers on the importance of having a healthy breakfast for the perfect start to the day. The campaign was advised by consumer research conducted by TNS Global, that showed that majority of respondents did not put much thought to what they had for breakfast or skipped breakfast altogether. The company will now be exploring partnership opportunities with KNDI to drive a national focus on the right breakfast nutrition as a prevention of lifestyle diseases.