Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) could impose a ban on the importation of Daily Fry edible cooking oil, if its investigations reveal that the product is not fit for human consumption.

RBS was alerted by its Ugandan counterpart, Uganda Nation Bureau of Standards (UNBS), which recently banned the Kenyan made product after failing to meet the required laboratory tests for human consumption.

RBS acting Head of Quality Assurance Unit, Antoinette Mbabazi, told Business Times, yesterday, that if RBS receives such alerts, the products are put under seal.

"…the matter is under investigation of which the concept is under the unit in charge,” she said.

Daily Fry cooking oil is imported from Malaysia and refined by Kenya’s Towrit Oil Ltd, which re-exports the product to Burundi, Uganda, DR Congo, Tanzania and Rwanda.

"We take samples of the product in the laboratories, if results are negative, we reject them and stop them from going to the market,” she added.

Trade experts within the region have described the importation of such products as a breach of the East African Common Market Protocol.

Mbabazi added that, if goods are found harmful to human consumption, the Bureau will expose them and the owners ordered to take them back to the country of origin.

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