Millers for Nutrition Launches in Kenya to increase access to high-quality, nutritious staple foods
CS, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Rebecca Miano and other Government officials from Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and KEBS joined milling industry leaders and other stakeholders to launch Millers for Nutrition, a new milling industry-led coalition which aims to ensure that more Kenyans can access safe, nutritious food to live healthier and more productive lives.
Also announced at the same event were this year’s winners of the Kenya Millers
Fortification Index (KMFI) Awards, which recognize local food brands that are
leading the way in improving the nutritional quality of their products.
As Kenya faces a dual threat of malnutritionand food safety due to Aflatoxin, ensuring the supply of safe, high-quality nutritious food is vital to the nation’s health and economic development.
By adding essential micronutrients to the widely consumed foods they produce, millers (the businesses responsible for
processing dietary staples like wheat, maize flour and cooking oil) play an
important role in reducing malnutrition and improving public health. Millers for
Nutrition has been established in Kenya to encourage, enable and celebrate this
vital work.
Millers who join Millers for Nutrition and commit to improving the nutritional quality of their food will receive free technical support to make it easier to fortify their products. This includes access to tailored technical training and business advice, product testing support and online tools and resources, which will also help millers to reduce their compliance risk and enhance production efficiency.
A key component of the Millers for Nutrition Initiative, is the Kenya Millers Fortification Index (KMFI), an industry self-regulatory tool which allows for millers to assess their performance based on set quality benchmarks.
Millers participating in the KMFI are ranked based on their self-assessment, industry expert group and product testing results.
Since the KMFI was launched in 2022, the index now features 20 companies
representing 88 brands spanning the wheat and maize flour industry. The tight competition included not only assessed fortification compliance but also internal operations of the company.
In Kenya, Millers for Nutrition is collaborating closely with the Cereal Millers Association (CMA), which represents approximately 40% of maize millers and over 90% of wheat millers, to provide technical trainings to members and to scale up bythe KMFI awards.
Millers for Nutrition is also working with the United Grain Millers
Association (UGMA) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) to help bridge industry knowledge gaps in food fortification.
Millers for Nutrition is also supporting national nutrition priorities and the country’s food fortification strategy, including working with the Ministry of Health to help improve premix 1 quality standards and supplier regulation.
Additionally, Millers for Nutrition is collaborating with the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) to enhance
lab testing approaches through a regional inter-laboratory exercise. With the recent discussions on rice fortification, Millers for Nutrition is contributing in formulation of rice fortification standards.
Millers of wheat / maize flour and edible oil can find out more information on Millers for Nutrition in Kenya and how to become a member at: www.millersfornutrition.com.
“We welcome the launch of Millers for Nutrition in Kenya and the additional
technical support that will be available to our members to improve fortification
practices. But it is the focus on transparency and accountability, which is central to Millers for Nutrition’s approach, that can unlock the potential of food fortification in Kenya, by encouraging an industry “race to the top” in fortification standards and complementing regulatory efforts to improve nutritional quality
and compliance. We look forward to building on our partnership with Millers for Nutrition and to doing our bit to ensure that all Kenyans can access the nutritious food they need to live healthier and more productive lives”, commented Paloma
Fernandes, CEO of the Cereal Millers Association.
“Millers for Nutrition members in Kenya will stand apart because they represent a commitment to fortification excellence and product quality that improves the
lives of the people they serve. By sharing practical tools and best-in-class expertise and training from industry leaders, Millers for Nutrition will enable millers to step up and adopt food fortification best practices. And, by building brand awareness for our members, we will turn good fortification into a business advantage,” said Rizwan Yusufali, Program Director for Millers for Nutrition at TechnoServe.
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