By HEZRON KUTE

An investigative report compiled by Dennis Okari of NTV exposed supermarkets for using sulphite chemical preservatives dawa ya nyama  that might  be harmful to human beings. While holding interviews with a supermarket attendant, Okari unearthed the unspeakable act done to make meat appear fresh and juicy in the eyes of an unsuspecting customer.

“Every morning before the doors open for customers, we take packaged meat that stayed overnight, remove the cling film and change the date labels to reflect the current date. If the packaging is stained with blood, we change it and put a new wrapping,” said the attendant.

Seeing as it might be a huge loss, the supermarkets have adopted this practice to make sure their meat have a longer shelf life. In the course of his exposé, Okari conducted his own experiment on two cuts of meat to find out whether the food sulphites really worked. He easily purchased the dawa at Nairobi’s Industrial area and mixed it with one cut and left the other cut untouched. After a couple of day the meat mixed in with the dawa stayed fresh and juicy while the other cut begun to rot and smell.

Supermarket managers expect a sale on meats even after they have exceeded the recommended two to three day shelf life. “Meat, including beef, chicken, fish and mutton, that negative side effects like nasal congestion, itchy throat, runny nose and skin rash.

Although this practice was revealed to be done by supermarkets alone there is no telling whether butcheries in town use sulphites presevatives or not.