The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned that poorly destroyed, expired or stolen products from food manufacturers are sneaking into the markets through scavengers.<\/p>\n
The agency gave the warning in a statement, on Sunday, in Lagos. It said that such practice was unacceptable as it endangered the lives of innocent consumers.<\/p>\n
The statement quoted the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, as giving the warning at its Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate stakeholders\u2019 engagement with food sector operators in Lagos.<\/p>\n
Adeyeye also warned Nigerians against patronising and consumption of unbranded cereals in the open market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a product doesn\u2019t have a NAFDAC number, we can\u2019t guarantee its safety. And it is not advisable that people should consume such products.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot speak to the safety of unbranded foods in the open market because we don\u2019t know where they come from, their expiry date cannot be traced,\u201d the D-G said.<\/p>\n
According to her, the agency in 2021 and 2022 carried out investigation and enforcement activities on unbranded cereals.<\/p>\n
The activities led to the arrest of some people selling online in Onitsha and bringing them to Lagos.<\/p>\n
Adeyeye said investigation revealed that people preferred to buy the unbranded product despite inherent dangers in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe considered the circumstances and the packaging and we couldn\u2019t really understand whether it is cheaper.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found out that the smallest packages of cereals were also removed from the packaging materials and also sold in bulk online,\u201d the statement quoted her as saying.<\/p>\n
The NAFDAC boss also stated that some industries were also part of the problem through their poor disposal process.<\/p>\n
She said people often steal products from companies\u2019 warehouses and sell them to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found out that people picked some of the cereals from dump sites in Agbara.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur investigations revealed that some companies dispose of some products through Ogun State Waste Management Authority. The disposal methods of companies are also an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to dispose of some bad or expired products, you are supposed to destroy them through NAFDAC\u2019s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should not be by the company directly through waste disposal authorities. It will always get to scavengers who will sell it back to the market.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also found out that not all the products had expired. Some of them were in company\u2019s packaging materials when diverted to sell at retail prices,\u201d Adeyeye said.<\/p>\n
According to her, NAFDAC needed to sensitise the industry against possible compromise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is a compromise in the industry, it could lead to serious dangers to our health.\u201d<\/p>\n
She, however, called for the investigation and prosecution of those who took the products from the dump site for sale.<\/p>\n
Adeyeye urged manufacturers of food products to always show concern about their products in the market.<\/p>\n
She urged them to establish Post Market Surveillance Units in their respective company.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenceforth, companies without post-marketing surveillance or Post Marketing Pharmacovigilance for drug manufacturing companies would be denied their products\u2019 renewal,\u201d Adeyeye warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned that poorly destroyed, expired or stolen products from food manufacturers are sneaking into the markets through scavengers. The agency gave the warning in a statement, on Sunday, in Lagos. It said that such practice was unacceptable as it endangered the lives of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3407,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions\/3407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}