The Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) has called on consumers to be wary of products that do not carry the quality mark certification log.
ZABS Public Relations officer Lee Hamuunji said the market has been saturated with products not bearing the ZABS quality mark certification log hence posing a threat to unsuspecting consumers.
Mr Hamunnji explained that products bearing the quality mark are safe for consumption as they are certified by ZABS.
He told Zambian News and Information Services (ZANIS) in an interview that ZABS is phasing out the old quality mark log with a new one that will be more visible to the consumers.
He stated that ZABS has since embarked on an awareness programme aimed at sensitizing the general public on the new quality mark certification product log.
Mr Hamunnji appealed to consumers to be on the look out for the new quality mark log on products .
Meanwhile, Mr Hamunnji has urged manufactures to ensure that their products are certified by ZABS.
He said manufacturing industries should take advantage of the quality mark and use it as a marketing edge.
Mr Hamunnji stressed that products carrying the quality mark log stand a greater chance of penetrating the international market as they would have been certified by ZABS.
ZANIS
People eat what is accessible to them, period.
i have done a few importations here and there and have never head of these guys let alone come across them at borders.
sisi,.. here is another case of pwetete pwetete…
Yes zabs only exists on paper .they get free salaries for just loafing.
ZABS is a bit confusing, I have dealt with many standards in my 15 year career in construction of process plants in many parts of the worlds. The basis of ZABS should be well defined , many people don’t know on which standard the ZABS are based on. Are they based on SABS, JIS, BS OR AMERICAN, CE OR ISO? Having a mark on roller maize meal will illustrate what I am saying, do you think roller is fit for human consumption? What standard do they use or the grain size required? We need to have complete standards in all areas not only manufacturing. Imports should be checked in bonded warehouses if they conform to the ZABS before they are distributed in the country. Printed copies of ZABS should be sold to specific industries so that they compare their spec with the required standards .
ZABS should monitor the facilities and equipment used to manufacture a product not the quality mark. Concentrating on a mark will just encourage knock-offs bearing the mark which will just defeat the whole purpose of quality control. Standards on foods and medicines should be made mandatory, we have to many fake generic medicines in Zambia and people are dying from curable diseases because of this. If we used original malaria drugs as made by the true owners of the trade mark name, we can cut malaria deaths by 80 per cent. ZABS should push for laws to make this possible. Please avoid Indian medicines sold in shady pharmacies, India supplies 90 per cent of the world fake medicines especially to Africa through Mauritius open ports.
Ba ZABS eko mwaba? People blame the Chinese who are just being aggressive in marketing their products. If they can find some gullible Zambainas who accept inferior materials for dime why not make mane out of them? The EU and even the USA imports a lot of products from China but they have very strict on standards. ZABS is simply not there. Balepanga fye ichongo because they do not even go out to inspect what is being imported or being manufactured locally. I guess we have been eating horse, sorry dog meat.