NAFDAC Gives Conditions to Renew Product Licences for Coys

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has warned food and drug manufacturing companies that it would no longer renew their product licences if they did not have a post-marketing surveillance unit in place.
NAFDAC also said food companies must guard against poorly incinerated cereals that sometimes sneak into the market as unbranded products, thus posing dangers to consumers’ health.

A statement by NAFDAC’s  Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, quoted Director General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye as dropping the warning at the Agency’s Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate Stakeholders Engagement with food sector operators in Lagos.
Adeyeye also said NAFDAC would no longer accept poorly destroyed expired or stolen products sneaking into the market through scavengers at waste dump site, thereby endangering lives of innocent consumers, particularly, children.

She insisted that, “If a product doesn’t have NAFDAC number, such a product can’t guarantee the safety,” and therefore, urged manufacturers of food products to always be more concerned about their products in the market by establishing Post Market Surveillance unit in their companies
She recalled that years ago, the agency made Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) mandatory for companies, but compliance had been poor.

“Henceforth, if a company doesn’t have Post Marketing Surveillance or Post Marketing Pharmacovigilance (for drug manufacturing Companies) department, the product will not be renewed.

“We have asked companies to establish PMS department, where they send people out to the market to see what is happening to their products out there. Once you get an inkling of somebody adulterating your product, you call us because you don’t have power to go with the police. We have the power to go and raid.
“That’s why we need collaboration because we must change our industrial practice. That’s how to get the best out of your trade. Once you tell us, I assure you we will be there in hours in terms of mopping it up and getting the suspect arrested and prosecuted.”

Deploring  the habit of patronising unbranded cereals in the open market, Adeyeye warned members of the public to stop buying product not certified by NAFDAC.