Yuletide: NAFDAC warns Nigerians about purchasing fake food products

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control(NAFDAC), has warned Nigerians to be mindful of fake products while they purchase food items during the festive season.

The agency’s acting Director General, Mrs. Monica Eimunjeze, gave the warning at a media sensitisation workshop on dangers of bleaching creams and regulatory controls held in Lagos on Wednesday.

Eimunjeze, who specifically expressed concerns about the proliferation of fake tomato paste in the market said quite a number of them have questionable NAFDAC registration numbers on them.

She said, “We had a raid yesterday working on credible intel. We were able to burst several warehouses and we have tomato paste in particular which is being smuggled into the country and that is a source of concern for us. As we all are aware, tomato paste is banned and we have local production of that product.

“We cannot speak to the quality of those products. Many of them have questionable numbers on them. Some of them are carrying NAFDAC numbers that belong to another product. Some do not have NAFDAC numbers on them while some of them have fictitious NAFDAC numbers. Investigation is still ongoing. It is important for Nigerians to note that the products are not approved by the agency and they should be mindful during this season and at all time.”

The NAFDAC boss also revealed that the agency was making moves to regulate cosmetics products that are sold online, adding that most of them were not subjected to regulatory review.

She said, “We are working with journalist to ensure that Nigerians are made aware of the implications of some of these products. And when people formulate products specifically on order for clients, they are difficult to regulate.

“It is not put on shelve, it’s just offered to people. What we want people to understand is that if you go for a product that has not been subjected to the regulatory review, we cannot speak to what it contains and we need Nigerians to understand that sometimes those products contains things that could harm you more than you expect.

“You would have long term damage which could affect your health overtime and we want to make people to be aware of that. We will be engaging that sector very closely. We will also be engaging those in that sector to make them aware that some things they do could have dangerous implications on the health of Nigerians and they should desist from such activity.”