By Majirioghene Bob Etemiku
Prologue: this article was published sometime in 2010 with the above title. I have tweaked it a little bit for space and timeliness of the issues.
Nigerians are now afraid of packaged foods. If some foods and drinks are not badly packed, others carry untrue claims of their actual contents. In 2010, the deadly impact of that trend stared everyone in the face with the death of 83 children from the My Pikin saga, a syrup supposedly a teething mixture but which was actually a dangerous chemical. Apart from foods like suya, akara and yam bought over stinking gutters, ‘pure water’ and most bottled drinks are also potential killers. These days when you drink pure water, you gulp down an unfamiliar smell.
Another area causing concern is the processing and packing of bread. Malachy Nnamdi, a Lagosian once told me: “If you visit bakeries where Agege bread is processed, you may not want to touch that commodity again. Some workers wipe off their sweaty arms into the dough when mixing it, arguing that the heat from the oven will kill all the germs. Most have no labels on them. A lot of them are hawked in open spaces beside the woman selling akara by the gutter”.
Other processed drinks like bottled water, pure water, malt drinks and lemon drinks pose grave danger to consumers. There are rife allegations that some ‘soft drinks’ in the market have more than 12 cubes of sugar in them. Many Nigerians are worried about the sugar content as well as the preservatives in these drinks.
Many Nigerians worry as well about the content and labels of their foods. In recent times, the numbers of people who have hurried to the toilet after eating some meals at some fast food outfits have continued to increase. A marketing executive told me that she has stopped taking meals prepared in fast food joints because of her running battle with diarrhea. According to her, ‘many of these people just want to make a profit. They keep recycling old food that should’ve been fed to dogs’, she said.
A manager with one of the fastest growing fast food outfits in Lagos also said that after having worked in a fast food outfit, he would not risk his life eating in any one of them. ‘About 99% of these outfits prepare their stew, rice, fish, chicken, rice, porridge with large doses of saccharin, a substance with suspected adverse effect on human health. ‘What you see in the cozy room where customers eat is a stark contrast to the kitchens where the meals are prepared. They use cheap ingredients, cheap labour and make their employees work long hours’, he said.
Perhaps, to attract more customers, some proprietors are alleged to have gone the extra mile to import their seasoning and condiments from Asia. Saccharin is allegedly present in condiments and many seasonings in the market.
It is used instead of sugar, especially by people interested in losing weight. In 1995, average worldwide consumption of saccharine was more than 100 million pounds. By 2017, it has more than quadrupled. Experts say that one reason why most fast food operators prefer to use saccharine in 90 per cent of their meals is that it is cheap. A dollar worth of saccharine will do the same job as $20 worth of sugar. A write-up in The British Medical Journal by Cleave T.L who is a doctor, insists that appendicitis is rare in African villages but common in the urban areas because of the consumption of westernized diets, particularly by the rich and upwardly mobile. ‘Irritation and cancer of the colon, unpleasant odour in stool, urinary tract infections, and appendicitis are some of the common diseases that go with eating a lot of saccharine in processed foods’, Cleave had said. However, the director of the United States, US, National Centre for Toxicological Research of the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, has stated that the supposed cancer risk of the carbohydrate that saccharine replaces are several times greater than the cancer risk of saccharine.
But, one other seasoning being used in some cuisines in most fast food joints monosodium glutamate, manufactured in Taiwan with NAFDAC registration number 01-0296, which is allegedly a bleaching substance. Investigations reveal that Monosodium glutamate, with its vital ingredient made from sugar cane, is the basic seasoning in the noodles and spaghetti market. Nutritionists insist that regular consumption of foods prepared with monosodium glutamate increases our chances of contracting and dying of cancer.
In other lands, food processing and packing is done under strict supervision from government. The US Food and Drug Administration, FDA, does not endorse any company that processes food or the manner of its processes. It regularly issues recalls of certain products. It can issue a nationwide recall of certain foods. Food processing companies in the US and many European countries pay special attention to the labeling of their products. They give precise details of the composition of what a pack of food contains, thereby giving the consumer the benefit of choice, and takes into account health concerns.
The Consumer Protection Council (CPC), the Standards Organization of Nigeria and NAFDAC must put their act together in this wise. Part of what the CPC says it does is embarking on enforcement activities to ensure that goods displayed in Nigerian markets have desired levels of wholesomeness, safety, quality, standard and quality. Officials said that they ensure adherence to standards set by SON ‘through our physical examinations’.
The agency also says that it regulates information on labels and packs on drinks, ‘guided by international best practices’. These agencies say they regulate and guide the kind of information that should be on foods and drinks produced locally and internationally. In spite of all these, Nigerians are still at the mercy of foods and drinks packed with scant information.
Etemiku, a communications manager at ANEEJ, writes via @bobaneej. The article, first published in 2010, was reviewed for timeliness.