Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Geoffrey Nnaji, has said 200,000 Nigerians lose their lives to foodborne illnesses every year, warning that the Federal Government will now enforce the full force of the law against those who engage in the illegal and unethical activities of food contamination and adulteration.
Nnaji stated that the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics indicated that tainted foodborne illness in over 600 million people worldwide each year, resulting in 200,000 fatalities, mostly in Nigeria, and 420,000 deaths throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
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The minister, who spoke at the official launch of the Food Safety Operational Manual and Training of Food Safety Desk Officers in Abuja, said his ministry and agencies, especially the Nigeria Council of Food Science and Technology (NiCoFST), are currently strengthening their regulatory oversight across the nation where food safety supervision is weakest.
Nnaji, represented by the Director General of the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Professor Samson Duna, stated that food safety is more than a health concern but a national security priority, development imperative and catalyst for inclusive growth in alignment with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
According to him, food safety is a science-driven enterprise and directed its agencies and research institutions in the ministry to develop cost-effective technologies for food preservation and quality assurance, promote indigenous innovations that respect Nigeria’s culinary diversity and deploy mobile and digital training tools for informal food vendors in both rural and urban areas.
The minister commended the registrar, Mrs Veronica Ezeh, and her management team for their “dedication, professionalism and foresight in developing this first-of-its-kind food safety operational manual”.
Earlier, the Registrar/CEO of NiCFoST, Mrs Veronica Ezeh, warned food vendors, restaurants and food business operators to desist from acts of food adulteration and other unethical practices that violate the Nigerian Constitution and endanger public health.
Ezeh said that common adulteration of food and other unethical practices include washing fruits and vegetables with detergents to make them look fresh and attractive, removing animal skin with burning tyres, using carbides to ripen fruits, cooking meat with paracetamol tablets as tenderizers and the addition of Sudan 4 dye to make red oil and red pepper more attractive and vibrant.
She declared that “food adulteration and other unethical acts can result in serious health consequences like cancer, liver cirrhosis, kidney failure, and malnutrition.”
The Registrar regretted that many local government authorities have failed to employ qualified food safety professionals despite the extant constitutional provision and called on all the 774 local government area chairmen to recruit licensed food safety professionals, policymakers, and development partners to institutionalise food safety frameworks and support food safety initiatives.
Over 150 Food Safety Desk Officers and attendees from Abuja Area Councils, food regulatory agencies, and food industry owners received training on how to apply the Food Safety Operational Manual at the meeting.
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