By Lloyd Takawira
As the maize meal shortages persist unabated concern has been the upsurge in numerous maize meal brands, mostly imports, which have flooded the local market .
While many of them could not be ascertained of their origin , concern from most of the health expert’s has been the hazardousness of substandard products to consumers’ health.
A cross-section of Zimbabweans who spoke to this reporter professed ignorance over maize meal they consume with many saying what matters most is that they have put something in the stomach.
” I bought this 10kg mealie meal from downtown area there near Mbare Siyaso , l don’t care if its Silo or Ngwerewere . What matters most is tadya sadza ” Said Menas a vendor along Ruzende Street.
Mai Mumu whom this reporter bumped into along Julias Nyerere carrying an identified maize meal brand had this to say.
” I bought this 10kg from a shop from a dealer near market square there . I don’t know its origin but l think its from South Africa ” says Mai Mumu .
Speaking to the Sunday News Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Mr Denford Mutashu said there was a danger that most of the mealie-meal that is finding its way into the country from neighbouring countries was sub-standard and likely to compromise the health of consumers.
“We have noticed that there is a lot of imported mealie-meal that has hit the market and we don’t know if it has been verified and suitable for consumption without causing any implication to the consumers or whether it’s coming from certified millers from those countries. In the midst of this drought we should also be very worried and prudent and alive to the fact that we cannot just consume anything and everything that ‘looks like mealie-meal’ as it will be detrimental to the future generation,” said Mr Mutashu.
“We will put in place robust monitoring checks and balances especially at our ports of entry to ensure the quality of roller meal coming in is in accordance with the quality we used to know before the subsidy. Value chain players are key in ensuring that mealie-meal, which meets the required standard comes into the country,” he added.
