Consumer goods such as concentrate juice, food pastes, rice, potato crisps and biscuits   form the bulk of substandard, fake and counterfeit products that are repeatedly impounded by Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS).

Recently, RBS impounded 270 cartoons of whisky branded "Bright Gentle Whisky and Buffalo Wild Whisky,” from Uganda and bags of rice from Pakistan. 

In an exclusive interview with Business Times this week, Jane Nyamvumba, the Head of Quality Assurance at RBS revealed that impounding of these products is a challenge to the institution as most of the counterfeits products meet minimum standards required.

However in order not to put the health and safety of the consumers at risk, RBS insists on checking other areas such as the packaging standards.

While some products are verified poor to import and carry certification marks, if there is cause for suspicion, RBS conducts laboratory test before they are released to the market.

"Some products are made almost exactly as the original product but for us (RBS) we go in the line of quality. Every product has it minimum requirements, for such products we base on the critical parameters of the product and for food products they have standards that include its packaging which must include the address for traceability,”

To mitigate cases of substandard goods getting into the country, Nyamvumba said RBS is working with other National Standards bodies in the region to prevent unsafe, substandard and potentially dangerous goods from entering the country.

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