Help! Fake items, products everywhere

How counterfeit products are causing health problems for Nigerians

VINCENT KURAUN traces Nigeria’s hidden adulteration crisis from farm to family table, as experts warn that everyday food and household products may harbour a serious, underrecognised threat to public health that hides in plain sight.

WHILE Nigerian markets continue to exhibit vibrancy and dynamism, they face growing challenges related to reliability and trust. Behind the fresh produce stalls and pharmacy shelves that Nigerians depend on daily, regulators are waging an expanding battle against counterfeit and adulterated products, a fight that has come to encompass everything from oranges, toothpaste to cooking oil.

Recently, it was not a laboratory report or scientific discovery that captured public attention, but it was a personal anecdote involving a former Vice President’s wife and a glass of orange juice that reignited national conversation.

Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that his wife experienced unexplained headaches after drinking freshly-squeezed orange juice, which subsequent lab tests found unfit for human consumption, with suspicion centering on the use of carbide to ripen and preserve the produce.

For the Nigerian Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), the detail landed hard, “a former Vice President of this country, a man of privilege, access, and protection, was not spared.” The group has since demanded NAFDAC intensify surveillance of markets and digital platforms alike.

In response, Nigeria’s food and drug regulator maintains that it is not standing idle. NAFDAC insists the agency operates round the clock, pointing to substantial data underscoring the crackdown it has launched.

Between May and July 2026 alone, the agency inspected 6,233 facilities across all 36 states and the FCT, withdrawing 7,210 non-compliant products from circulation. On a national scale, the agency also reports securing the conviction of 64 counterfeiters as part of its broader enforcement efforts.

Toothpaste tubes that aren’t what they claim

Toothpaste has emerged as one of 2026’s most persistent counterfeit targets. In Kaduna State, NAFDAC investigators tracing a complaint about fake toothpaste falsely associated with the Colgate brand raided a retail outlet and found two suspicious items labelled Coglaet ActivGel 100g and Coglaet Herbal 100g, near-identical knockoffs of a trusted name.

The shop owner could offer no proof of purchase, having reportedly bought the stock from a door-to-door salesman.

More recently, market surveillance in Lagos uncovered a different scheme, a product called ORACIRE+ Toothpaste being distributed under the guise of the registered ORACARE+ Toothpaste.

Investigators found the counterfeit at Ojuwoye Market in Mushin, closely resembling the genuine product in packaging design, making the two difficult for consumers to distinguish. NAFDAC has also flagged unresolved public concerns involving Oral-B and Colgate toothpaste specifically, issuing an official alert notice on the Colgate case.

Palm Oil: Nigeria’s most adulterated staple

No product illustrates the scale of the crisis better than palm oil, a kitchen staple in nearly every Nigerian household. NAFDAC’s Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, voiced “grave concern” over palm oil adulterated with azo dyes and other hazardous contaminants, especially oil sold in traditional, unbranded packaging.

The dye at the centre of the problem is commonly called Sudan Dye. A textile colorant, not a food additive, and NAFDAC has long warned it is carcinogenic and can cause organ damage with repeated exposure. Officials have urged consumers to treat unusually reddish, glossy palm oil as a warning sign rather than a sign of quality.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has separately flagged that adulterators go beyond dye alone, mixing palm oil with lard (pork fat) and even transformer oil (paraffin) to bulk up volume, practices linked to abdominal pain, liver disease, and in severe cases cardiac arrest.

NAFDAC has also warned tanker operators against hauling edible oils in tankers previously used for kerosene or petrol, another contamination route that has drawn regulatory scrutiny. In January 2026, enforcement caught up with one of the more brazen schemes, as NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Martins Iluyomade, announced that the agency had raided a factory at Oke-Arin market in Idumota, Lagos, producing fake “Goya oil”, a product widely used both as cooking oil and as anointing oil in churches.

Investigators found that burnt palm oil was being mixed with colouring and repackaged into PET bottles under the Goya label, despite genuine Goya oil only being sold legally in its original imported bottles. Stoves, colouring agents, and empty bottles were recovered at the site, and a suspect was arrested. NAFDAC has since warned religious organisations against allowing the sale of PET-bottled Goya oil at gatherings.

Palm oil’s ubiquity, used daily in cooking across virtually every region, is precisely what makes its adulteration such a persistent public health concern, and NAFDAC has run periodic sensitisation campaigns on the issue since at least 2021 without fully stamping it out.

Fufu and the wider food chain

Palm oil isn’t the only staple food under scrutiny. NAFDAC has pointed to troubling reports of bleach being used in fufu production and has urged state and local authorities to tighten monitoring of staple foods within their own jurisdictions.

Social media outrage this year swept up a long list of other suspects too, yoghurt, soy sauce, olive oil, chicken, fish, bottled water and beverages, though NAFDAC insists many of those specific claims still lack lab confirmation.

The agency has also pushed back on some viral claims, clarifying that imported fruits like apples, grapes and oranges actually fall under the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, not NAFDAC’s exclusive jurisdiction, and insisting social media allegations alone can’t prove a product is counterfeit without scientific verification.

Expressing frustration over what it describes as slow transparency, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has publicly released its own list of suspected counterfeit products, including toothpaste bearing a popular international brand, dyed palm oil, artificially enhanced fruits, fake soy sauce, olive oil, and yoghurt.

The group also warns of a growing “shadow economy” on social media and e-commerce platforms, where drugs, supplements, cosmetics and food are marketed without NAFDAC registration or approval, a regulatory blind spot that’s proving hard to police.

In the light of this, NAFDAC has consistently advised consumers to purchase products only from registered pharmacies and reputable retailers, carefully verifying batch numbers and packaging against genuine originals. Consumers are also urged to exercise caution with palm oil exhibiting an unusually reddish or glossy appearance, as well as fruit that appears artificially uniform.

Additionally, the agency encourages the public to report suspicious retailers or suspected counterfeit products directly to NAFDAC via the hotline and email address listed on its official website.

Seeking deeper clarity on the science behind these concerns, Sunday Tribune spoke with Adejuwon Adeneye, Professor of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology at Lagos State University College of Medicine, Ikeja, and Director of the LASU Directorate of Research Management and Innovation in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University, Ojo. He gave details on how calcium carbide is used to ripen fruit and how this process differs from the way fruit ripens naturally.

“Calcium carbide ripens fruit artificially when it comes into contact with moisture in the air or on the fruit’s surface. This reaction produces acetylene gas which simulates the natural ethylene, the natural plant hormone responsible for ripening.

“The released acetylene binds to the fruit and triggers external softening and color changes. Thus, acetylene primarily forces skin color changes and superficial softening while the inside of the fruit often remains starch-heavy, tart, and flavorless or tasteless.”

He noted that natural ethylene is harmless to the body but commercial-grade calcium carbide which are readily available over-the-counter contains toxic trace impurities such as arsenic and phosphorus hydride (also known as phosphine).

“Thus, when fruits treated or tainted with calcium carbide are eaten, it can cause harmful effects such as mouth ulcers, gastrointestinal irritation, dizziness and long-term neurological disorders.”

Lending further credence to this account, Peter Akah, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and former Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, Owerri, offered a corroborating perspective drawn from decades of academic and regulatory experience.

Asked to clarify what actually poses the greater danger in carbide-ripened fruit, whether it is the calcium carbide gas itself or the impurities often found in the substance as sold in local markets, Professor Akah was direct in his assessment. He identified contaminants such as arsenic and phosphorus, the same impurities named by Professor Adeneye, as the true source of harm, rather than the ripening gas alone.

Addressing why counterfeiters use diethylene glycol (DEG) in toothpaste, and what its effects on the body are, Professor Adeneye explained that legitimate manufacturers use glycerin (also known as glycerol) or propylene glycol as manufacturing ingredients that retain moisture, prevent the paste from drying out, and provide a smooth, sweet-tasting texture.

“DEG is an industrial solvent and antifreeze component that shares almost identical physical properties with glycerin (colorless, odorless, viscous, and sweet). Because DEG is a cheap industrial byproduct, counterfeiters use it as an illegal, low-cost substitute for food-grade glycerin to cut production costs.”

Explaining what DEG does to the body, he noted that although toothpaste is intended to be spit out, small amounts are often unintentionally swallowed, particularly by children, and DEG can also be absorbed through the mouth’s thin mucous linings.

“When it accumulates in the body, DEG can disrupt normal metabolic function, causing kidney failure and acid-base imbalance, with resultant accumulation of toxic acid metabolites. It can also trigger severe neurological toxicity, which may manifest as lethargy, confusion, facial paralysis, nerve damage, coma, and, frequently, death if left untreated,” he stated.

Corroborating this warning, Professor Akah offered his own perspective when asked whether DEG-contaminated toothpaste poses a danger through ordinary brushing and spitting, or only when swallowed. His answer was measured, offering some reassurance while still flagging the risk to vulnerable users. Toxic effects, he explained, occur “when swallowed or ingested,” a point that echoes Professor Adeneye’s concern that children, in particular, are prone to inadvertently swallowing toothpaste while brushing.

Speaking on the effects of mercury in skin-lightening creams, and whether skin contact alone is enough to cause harm, Adeneye told Sunday Tribune that mercury acts by blocking tyrosinase, the key enzyme the body needs to produce melanin, the pigment that gives skin its colour.

“Direct skin contact with mercury alone causes severe systemic harm, like kidney function failure, metabolic disruption, and neurological deficits,” he said.

He explained that when absorbed into the bloodstream through repeated contact, mercury accumulates across multiple body systems, causing harmful effects such as chronic renal failure, peripheral and central neurological disorders, paradoxical skin darkening, and skin thinning. In pregnant and lactating mothers, he warned, mercury easily crosses the placental barrier and enters breast milk, causing severe neurodevelopmental deficits in unborn babies and infants.

Lending weight to these concerns, Akah addressed the broader question of skincare product safety, an area of mounting concern as counterfeit and adulterated creams and lotions flood Nigerian markets. Asked at what point a skincare product becomes genuinely dangerous, whether it is a matter of the quantity applied or the length of time it is used, Professor Akah stated that harm results from “both the amount and the duration of use.” His answer suggests that even low-risk exposure to adulterated skincare products can build up into serious harm over time. This challenges the common assumption that using such products occasionally or sparingly is safe, and it supports Adeneye’s point that mercury builds up in the body and gradually damages it.

Perhaps most striking was Akah’s response when asked why counterfeit and adulterated products continue to reach Nigerian markets despite NAFDAC’s sustained enforcement efforts.

Rather than pointing solely to gaps in detection technology or manpower, he traced the problem to deeper structural failures, citing “corruption in the system, as well as poor regulatory practices.”

Asked which of these adulterated products, fruits, toothpaste, skin creams, or palm oil, pose the greatest public health risk in Nigeria today, Professor Adeneye stated that while mercury-tainted skin creams cause severe organ failure among millions of Nigerians, adulterated palm oil represents the single largest public health threat in the country today.

“The key distinction lies in universal, involuntary exposure. Skin-bleaching products are consumed voluntarily by a specific group of people, mostly young women. Palm oil, by contrast, is a non-discretionary daily food staple consumed across virtually every household, age group, and socio-economic demographic in Nigeria.

“Because industrial dyes like Sudan IV are invisible, odourless but highly genotoxic carcinogens added directly to a core dietary staple, over 200 million people are subjected to cumulative DNA damage, liver damage and elevated cancer risk without their knowledge or consent,” he said.

Finally, when asked to recommend three practical steps Nigeria should take within the next year, Adeneye said the first should be to enact modernised legal frameworks with severe criminal penalties.

“Update national health and regulatory laws to reclassify the deliberate chemical adulteration of foods and cosmetics, such as lacing palm oil with Sudan IV dye or adding mercury to skin creams, as severe criminal felonies.

Regulatory reforms must impose mandatory prison terms, heavy financial forfeitures, and permanent business closures to eliminate the low-risk, high-reward profit incentive for counterfeiters,” Adeneye stated.

The second step, he said, is to deploy portable field-testing kits for real-time market enforcement. “Equip field inspectors from NAFDAC and local health authorities with portable, low-cost screening tools, such as handheld spectroscopic scanners and fast-acting chemical test strips, across major open markets. Conducting real-time chemical screening at key commercial hubs enables immediate product confiscation and market closures, without relying solely on delayed, centralised laboratory processing.”

He finally called for mandatory digital traceability and mobile consumer verification.

“Establish a nationwide digital supply-chain tracking standard requiring commercial food processors, bulk oil distributors, and cosmetic manufacturers to print tamper-evident QR codes or scratch-off verification numbers on packaging.

Linking packaging to an open regulatory database enables consumers to instantly confirm product safety via basic smartphone scans or USSD codes at the point of purchase,” Adeneye suggested.