The Federal Competitors and Shopper Safety Fee (FCCPC) has issued a robust warning to Nigerians over the consumption of fruits forcefully ripened with dangerous chemical substances, significantly calcium carbide.
The warning was delivered on Monday throughout a one-day sensitisation programme on meals high quality requirements organised by the company in Ado-Ekiti.
Government Chairman of FCCPC, Mr. Olatunji Bello, represented by the Director of High quality Assurance, Mrs. Nkechi Mba, condemned the rising sale of adulterated and contaminated meals in markets, describing it as a serious danger to public well being.
Well being dangers of calcium carbide
Bello defined that calcium carbide incorporates poisonous components that pose extreme dangers to human well being.
” Such alarming traits embody principally, the forceful ripening of fruits, utilizing dangerous chemical substances, comparable to calcium carbide, which incorporates hint quantities of arsenic and phosphorus, each of that are extremely poisonous to people,” he mentioned.
The FCCPC boss lamented that these practices not solely endanger the lives of tens of millions of Nigerians but additionally weaken shopper belief and compromise the nation’s meals system.
Bello assured Nigerians that the fee would clamp down on violators, stressing that full enforcement of the legislation has commenced.
In accordance with him, the sensitisation programme is step one to alert unsuspecting shoppers whereas sending purple sign to defiant perpetrators.
He disclosed that the FCCPC had already intervened in a number of instances via common market surveys, which led to the shutdown of services, sanctions, and prosecution of offenders.
” These practices not solely endanger the lives of tens of millions of Nigerians, however in addition they erode shopper belief, and sabotage the integrity of our meals programs,” Bello added.
Extra insights
To strengthen enforcement, Bello revealed that the FCCPC is working intently with the Nationwide Company for Meals, Drug Administration and Management (NAFDAC), the Requirements Organisation of Nigeria (SON), in addition to the Federal Ministries of Well being and Agriculture.
He added that customers even have a accountability to rigorously examine what they buy from farms and markets.
The company’s Director of Shopper and Enterprise Schooling, Mr. Yahaya Kudan, mentioned the sensitisation programme displays the FCCPC’s dedication to empowering stakeholders throughout the meals provide chain.
Kudan mentioned the company stays devoted to educating farmers, distributors, shoppers, and companies on protected and honest practices in meals manufacturing and distribution.
The sensitisation programme introduced collectively a variety of stakeholders, together with representatives from NAFDAC, SON, Federal and Ekiti State Ministries of Agriculture, Well being, and Commerce, Commerce and Funding.
Additionally in attendance had been members of the Ekiti Shopper Safety Fee, All Farmers Affiliation of Nigeria, Yam Farmers Affiliation, and Cassava Growers.
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