HAZARDOUS FOOD PRESERVATION METHODS

The food we consume and export should meet the required standards

At a recent event convened by the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) in Abuja, experts agreed on the urgent need to tackle the high rate of food poisoning in Nigeria. With about 200,000 fatalities annually, some of the harmful practices said to be the cause include the use of carbide to ripen fruits, tendering of meat with paracetamol by food vendors, using formaldehyde to preserve fish, injecting poultry with hormones to conceal disease, and harmful food colouring, among others. Yet, according to Eva Edwards, a director with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), food-borne diseases disproportionately affect the most vulnerable of the society – the infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly and the immune-compromised people.

It is noteworthy that some of these problems are obvious and have been repeatedly pointed out on this page. Unfortunately, relevant authorities have done little or nothing about them. In 2015, for instance, the European Union (EU) banned the exportation of beans from Nigeria on grounds that the level of pesticide was dangerously high. The ban still subsists. Many of our produce shipped out of the country at great cost have also been rejected and shipped back because of their mode of preservation or shelf life. Indeed, only few days ago, the World Trade Organisation said many of the country’s agricultural exports are being rejected because they do not meet the sanitary and other health requirements.

Some of the meat and poultry sold in the open market are reportedly preserved with dangerous chemicals. “They inject chickens and make them look so nice and attractive. But people will rather go for them or even dig up buried ones by customs because they free meat,” a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh once said about the harmful chickens and related foods smuggled across the borders because of the manner in which they are preserved.

A few years ago, there was panic over beans, a popular staple food. The worry came as result of the public health implications of misapplied chemicals on food consumers. A video had gone viral on how some retailers were using Sniper, a powerful insecticide, to preserve beans before bagging it for sale. The practice was reportedly commonplace, often used to eliminate or protect beans from weevils’ infection. It has also been established that other food items like banana, plantain, corn, sorghum, apples, and vegetables are improperly preserved or hurriedly ripened with dangerous chemicals.

Sniper, a dichlorovinyl, available across the counter, is a dangerous chemical used for killing bugs and insects. The Coordinating Director of the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, (NAQS) Vincent Isegbe said sniper is injurious to health, if applied as a pesticide. “Sniper in beans is a material equivalent of death in pot,” he said. “So, it may not be an exaggeration to say that sniper in beans is a weapon of mass destruction.” Calcium Carbide, another dangerous substance used by welders, is also often used by many retailers in the ripening of banana and plantain and other produce for quick money.

Over the years, hundreds of families had perished after the consumption of contaminated food items either at home or at parties. Since the causes of many of these deaths were never accurately determined, it is becoming increasingly clear that some of them could have been caused by wilful contamination of foods. Authorities in the agriculture sector, at all levels, must ensure that useful and relevant information – from planting to harvesting and preservation- is passed on to farmers and retailers, many of whom are unaware of the risks. There is therefore the crying need to ensure that the food we put on the table for our citizens or the ones we export meet required standards. It is in our collective interest as a nation.