The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has warned food manufacturing companies it would no longer accept poorly destroyed, expired or stolen products sneaking into the market through scavengers at waste dump sites.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye who issued the warning at the Agency’s Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate Stakeholders Engagement with food sector operators in Lagos, raised concerns that the lives of innocent consumers, particularly, children, were being endangered.
Adeyeye who insisted that the safety of a product without a NAFDAC number could not be guaranteed, condemned and advised against the habit of patronizing unbranded cereals without a NAFDAC registration/marketing authorization number in the open market.
According to her, all the products that have gone through the regulatory processes are packaged with NAFDAC registration numbers on them.
She said: ‘’We cannot speak to the safety of unbranded food in the open market. We do not know where they have come from. We don’t know anything about the expiry date. We cannot trace.”
Adeyeye recalled that In 2021 and 2022, the Agency carried out a lot of investigation and enforcement activities on unbranded cereals leading to the arrest of some people that were selling online in Onitsha and bringing them to Lagos.
Delving into the psychology of the consumption pattern of risky products, the DG disclosed that in the cause of the investigation, it was discovered that people would prefer to buy the unbranded ones despite the inherent dangers associated with them.
‘’We considered the circumstances and the packaging, and we couldn’t really understand whether it is cheaper. we found out that even some smaller packages, the smallest packages of cereals were also removed from the packaging materials and also sold in bulk. They add them together and sell online.”
On the issue of the source of the cereals, the NAFDAC boss argued that some industries were also complicit in this saying, ’ We found out that some of the cereals were picked up from dump sites in Agbara.
She said that investigations by the Agency revealed that the products were disposed of through Ogun State Waste Management Authority, adding that the disposal methods of companies are also an issue.
‘’If you want to dispose of some bad or expired products, you are supposed to destroy them by NAFDAC Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, not by the company directly through waste disposal authorities. It will always get to scavengers who will sell it back to the market.
“Further investigations revealed that most of the products were stolen from company warehouses because we found out that not all the products had expired. Some of them were in the company’s packaging materials when diverted to sell at retail prices online and in the marketplaces.’’
The DG who noted that she places a lot of premium on food, added that ‘’the food we eat may make us ill and to be more dependent on medicine. If we make sure that people eat quality food, they will take less medicine.’’
She, however, urged manufacturers of food products to always be more concerned about their products in the market by establishing Post Market Surveillance units in their companies. She recalled that years ago, the Agency had made Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) mandatory for companies, but compliance has been poor.
She, however, stated that henceforth, if a company doesn’t have Post Marketing Surveillance or Post Marketing Pharmacovigilance (for drug manufacturing Companies) department, the product will not be renewed.
‘’We have asked companies to establish PMS dept where they send people out to the market to see what is happening to their products out there. Once you get an inkling of somebody adulterating your product you call us because you don’t have the power to go with the police. We have the power to go and raid.
“That’s why we need collaboration because we must change our industrial practice. That’s how to get the best out of your trade. Once you tell us, I assure you we will be there in hours in terms of mopping it up and getting the suspect arrested and prosecuted.”
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