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EU Ban On Nigerian Foods by peteregwu(m): 4:14pm On Jan 29, 2017 |
There is a baleful outlook about the safety of the foods
consumed in Nigeria. In a scary move, the European
Union has rejected several food items originating from
Nigeria. Citing poor quality, contamination and high
levels of chemicals in the preserved products, the EU
banned 67 processed and semi-processed foods from
Nigeria in 2015 and 2016. This development poses grave
threat to the health of Nigerians who consume these foods
that are being disallowed in Europe. As a matter of
urgency, the government should initiate a sweeping
review of our agricultural practices.
Essentially, the issue centres on how to safeguard public
health. While the Europeans, because of their adherence
to standards, might have saved their citizens from these
harmful farm products, Nigerians are blindly eating
them. According to the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food
and Feed, an organisation which assesses quality, 42 food
items from Nigeria were not fit for consumption in 2015.
In 2016, 25 such foods were barred from entering
Europe. This is terrifying.
The RASFF reports detailed how Nigerian foods fell far
short of the minimum required standards. As a result, it
rejected items like beans, melon seeds, palm oil, bitter
leaf, pumpkin, shelled groundnut and live snails. Most of
the items were rejected for not having labels, improper
packaging, lack of health certificates and other entry
documents. These are foods consumed with relish in
Nigeria.
The EU analyses discovered that some of the foods
contained glass fragments, rodent excreta and dead
insects. It noted high levels of chemicals like dichlorvos,
diometrate and trichlorphon in the products. Some of
these chemicals were used in the planting process; others
were used in preservation. But this could not prevent
microbes such as salmonella, aflatoxins and mould from
contaminating them, according to the European
regulator.
This is not totally unexpected, considering the
agricultural practices here. But it should provoke
Nigerians to ask pertinent questions about the safety of
the foods they eat. To buttress the EU’s position, Audu
Ogbeh, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development, early this year, warned that Nigerians
might be killing themselves in instalments through the
food that they eat. Ogbeh listed several of such poisonous
foods, including moin-moin wrapped with cellophane
(nylon). Another is sachet water exposed to the sun at 28
degrees Celsius. This causes liver and kidney failure,
Ogbeh cautioned. He says, “Many of the cows being
moved from one place to the other by herdsmen are
already infected with tuberculosis….” This is worrisome.
The wrong application of fertiliser by farmers poses its
own challenges. Likewise, the processing of palm-oil,
garri, yam flour, fufu and other staples has been found to
be unsafe. Palm-oil is refined using archaic, cumbersome
methods, while garri and yam flour are spread on hills
and roadsides in the rural areas, where they are
contaminated by rodents. We urge the Health Minister,
Isaac Adewole, to respond to these concerns in the
interest of public health.
However, apart from the dangerous foods produced
locally, Nigerians are also exposed to danger from
imported foods, particularly frozen poultry, palm-oil and
fruits. Ogbeh explains: “Smuggled frozen chicken
preserved with formalin, which is also used for
preservation of dead bodies, have been potent poison
being consumed by Nigerians with attendant serious
health challenges in the land.” This is serious. The
minister should use this information to instil sanity in the
system.
To eliminate hazardous foods, the templates being
employed in the United States and the EU should be of
interest to the Ministries, Agencies and Departments of
government saddled with food safety. First, the National
Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control
and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria should be
revamped for service delivery.
Compromised food imports are not tolerated in civilised
climes. To protect the health of its people, the US
authorities had banned beef imports from France in
January 1998 following the outbreak of the Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy (foot and mouth disease in
cattle). The moratorium was lifted in January 2017.
The US Food and Drug Administration demands that
locally-produced and imported foods meet its
requirements or be banned. Consequently, it has just
banned three toxic food packaging chemicals used in
making grease, stain and water-repelling food packaging
and is considering banning seven cancer-causing food
additives used in so-called artificial and natural
flavourings. We commend these systems to our negligent
government: it should keep away tainted food from the
public, and confiscate those that manage to escape
scrutiny at the borders. The Nigerian Customs Service has to be up and running in eradicating the smuggling of frozen poultry products into the Nigerian market. The agriculture, health and interior ministries need to task the MDAs under them to prevent hazardous fish and fruits from entering our shores. The Federal Government should sanction the heads of the MDAs concerned if these products continue to infiltrate the local market. As the standardisation of local farm produce has broken down, Ogbeh, in collaboration with states and local government councils, should re-introduce and strengthen the agricultural extension services, for assistance to farmers. The agency, which supervised, monitored and aided farmers on the right amount of chemicals to be applied in the past, among other technical assistance, has a crucial role to play in the restoration of standards. Farmers should be encouraged to form cooperative societies to enable them to benefit from new knowledge in farming, including the use of improved seedling, processing, labelling and packaging. Interest groups should mount constant pressure on government to make its agencies be on their toes to eliminate dangerous agricultural practices. Punch news |
Re: EU Ban On Nigerian Foods by SmartchoicesNG: 4:17pm On Jan 29, 2017 |
Most of the items were rejected for not having labels, improper packaging, lack of health certificates and other entry documents. These are foods consumed with relish in Nigeria. did you read this part in your post? |
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