Enforcement of food safety standards

WITH deaths from unsafe food rising from 351,000 persons in 2010 to 2 million per annum in 2014, according to global estimates by the World Health Organisation, the significance of safe food has been brought to the fore once again. WHO, which gave the sobering figure during World Health Day 2015 — with “From farm to plate (and everywhere in between)” as its theme — says “new threats to food safety are constantly emerging” because of globalisation. This is a serious cause for concern.

While adults are affected by unhygienic food, children are more vulnerable to unsafe food. “Food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances is responsible for more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers,” says the WHO report. As a country, we need a coordinated plan of action to stem these disastrous health indications. Such plan should be practical to contain the upsurge.


Raw food like vegetables, fruits, meat, poultry and fish are susceptible to contamination, more so when they are exported from one country to the other. Nigeria, which is a destination for a variety of frozen foods, and known for its lax regulation, needs to draw up fresh efforts to monitor imported items. “A local food safety problem can rapidly become an international emergency. Investigation of an outbreak of food-borne disease is vastly more complicated when a single plate or package of food contains ingredients from multiple countries,” says Margaret Chan, WHO’s Director-General.

Last year, Akinwunmi Adesina, the Minister of Agriculture, demonstrated the danger of imported foods to the Nigerian public when his personal inspection of cold stores in Lagos exposed a large consignment of rotten fish. “The preliminary assessment also revealed that a single cold room belonging to one company with seven subsidiaries contained 2,290 cartons of unwholesome fish, while another had 256 cartons of expired fish and 581 unwholesome fish,” he said.

Apart from confiscating poisonous items of this nature, the government needs to prosecute the offenders, punishing them to serve as a deterrent to others. The ever increasing danger posed by unsafe food can be gleaned from the perspective given by Zainab Akanji, a consultant who was part of WHO’s food safety summit. She lamented that “99 per cent of Nigerians eat outside under adverse conditions.”

On a daily basis, Nigerians are confronted with meat vendors transporting their wares in unhygienic conditions via motorcycles and dirty vans. Worse, there is poor standardisation at many of our abattoirs, where putrid odour and other ungainly sight rend the atmosphere. We need to redress this.

Organisations charged with food safety have to redouble their efforts. In the not-too-distant past, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, under the late Dora Akunyili as Director-General, proved effective in battling vendors of adulterated food and drugs.

Nigerians consume various types of unregistered water, drinks and packaged foods as urbanisation grows in the country. This has grave impact on health. Even drugs are not left out as several of these items are adulterated, and still find their way into the public domain because of ineffective regulation. NAFDAC, in collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and other regulators, should make moves to make food sold here to be safe for consumption.

Safe food is imperative, not only for good health, but also because contaminated food strains health facilities and poses economic risks in affected nations. Vegetables and fruits grown with manure from human and animal faeces, as is widely practised here, are likely to harbour bacteria and germs, causing health problems for consumers. In 2011, for example, the outbreak of the Escherichia coli infection in Germany caused a loss of $1.3 billion to the country’s farmers. This is in addition to emergency aid payments of $236 million to farmers in 22 other European Union countries. The Pirbright Institute, a United Kingdom-based think tank, and the Royal Veterinary College, UK, estimate that the highly contagious foot and mouth disease outbreak cost direct and indirect economic losses of between $5.1 billion and $21 billion.

Food is essential to life, but when it is contaminated, it results in diseases and deaths. In 2013, a certain percentage of the palm oil imported into Nigeria from Asia was discovered to be mixed with harmful chemicals like chlorine (a bleaching agent) and Solvent Red 24, which a research at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, confirmed could lead to cancer and organ failure. To prevent food-borne illnesses, food coming into Nigeria has to conform to international standards, while food grown in the country should also be passed fit for human consumption.

The pledge by Lagos to end the slaughtering of animals indiscriminately except at the abattoir should be sustained, and emulated by other states. This is the standard practice in places like Kenya, Botswana and South Africa. Other state governments should join in efforts to make meat consumption safe for the populace.

However, food safety is better ensured when everybody in the chain plays his or her roles effectively. End consumers need to adhere to some basic rules. For example, keeping chopping boards and knives used for raw meat and other food items properly separated and clean ensures safety, just as hygiene matters in food preparation.

WHO, which has established measures to help in combating unsafe food, offers five salient tips to food sellers and consumers. The keys are, “Keep clean; separate raw and cooked food; cook food thoroughly; keep food at safe temperatures; and use safe water and raw materials.”