In latest health news, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against consuming frozen poultry products and other food items preserved with formalin. Formalin is a poisonous chemical popularly used to preserve corpses in mortuaries.
According to the Nation Online, Dr. Abubakar Jimoh, NAFDAC’s spokesman, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that some people had been using formalin to preserve poultry products, chicken and turkey, in particular.
“NAFDAC is alerting Nigerians to this practice. There are enough poultry products in the country than to resort to frozen chicken smuggled in, despite the Federal Government’s ban,” Dr. Jimoh said.
He also explained the economic impact of patronizing business owners who smuggle goods such as poultry products into the country to sell. He pointed out that patronizing them would affect the growth of indigenous poultry farmers and marketers as they would not be making sales. He also added that purchasing smuggled products would negatively affect the Nation’s foreign exchange reserves.
Adeyeye, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Ports Inspection, Prof Samson Adebayo, noted that the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic had aggravated the problem with the crisis posed by substandard and falsified personal protective equipment (PPEs).
She stated that it was common knowledge that Nigeria has a predominant share of the global problems arising from after-effects of consuming falsified medical products and unwholesome food items.
She also mentioned that they were also looking at the abuse of codeine and self-medication, especially among youths; the dangerous effects of using kerosene tanker to load groundnut oil; the dangerous practice of using potassium bromate to bake bread; the use of azo-dyes in palm oil which causes cancer; dangers of trans fat and intake of excessive oil and the use of formalin on food and its associated health hazards.
Prof Moji Adeyeye, the Director General, gave the warning in Lagos during the ongoing campaign on the various infractions that impact negatively on Nigerians’ health as well as the health care delivery system.
