Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Expired milk: NAFDAC shuts Lagos company

Agency reporter


The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has sealed a milk repackaging company, Rofico Limited, Agege, Lagos over alleged circulation of expired milk.



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/apr/7/801.html

The Director General of the agency, Dr. Paul Orhii, who disclosed this at a news conference in Lagos on Tuesday[b], explained that the company, which packages milcow, was closed down following a public concern that the expired milk of the firm could be in circulation in the country.[/b]

Orhii added that the management of the company, which has warehouses at Agege; Oba Akran in Ikeja and Isolo, had been invited to assist NAFDAC in investigations.

Explaining the closure, he said that the officers of the agency had on November 5, 2009 swooped on the warehouse of the company after receiving information that it was repackaging expired milk.

"At the Agege Motor Road warehouse, no evidence of packaging activities was seen. However, 84 bags of expired premix flavor and concentrate cholcolote tagged, 'rejected' were found in the raw material sections," he said.

Orhii stated that at Oba Akran, bags of expired powder milk tagged "awaiting destruction" were found. He added that the agency also[b] discovered 318 packs of unlabelled milcow tagged "on hold" in the warehouse.[/b]

"Seven thousand and thirty cartons of milcow unsweetened full cream due to expire on March 17, 2010 were found," the NAFDAC director general said.

He disclosed that the company explained that it was awaiting clearance from its insurance company before the expired items would be handed over to the state's health and environmental department for destruction.

According to Orhii, NAFDAC directed the company to submit all expired products in the warehouses to it for destruction.

He said that the products were initially scheduled for destruction on March 24, 2010. According to him, the destruction was rescheduled for March 31 because the company could not make necessary payments to the agency.

Following another tip-off on March 31, 2010, he said that NAFDAC officials visited the company. Orhii added that the agency, however, discovered that the company had made payments for the destruction of the products without informing NAFDAC.

He stated that the products were also moved to Sagamu dumpsite without being accompanied by officers of the agency.

"Due to late arrival and violation of destruction procedure that requires that products for destruction be accompanied to the dumpsite by NAFDAC officials, the company was advised to return the products to its warehouses and await further directive," he said.

Orhii stated that following a newspaper report, the agency's officers visited the warehouses to take inventory of the products, which were found to be intact.

The director general, however, said that the officers observed that more expired products that had not been seen were in the warehouse.

"Taking into consideration the public concern that there might be expired milk in circulation in the country and the fact that more expired milk was found at the Agege Motor Road warehouse, the company has been closed down and its management invited to assist NAFDAC in its investigation," he said.