The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has knocked Nigerians blaming the agency for the circulation of fake food products in the market.
In recent times, Nigerians have complained over the alarming rate of fake food products in circulation. Over the weekend, actress Ruth Kadiri raised alarm after purchasing ‘fake ginger.”
In a recent interview with Businessday, Professor Adeyeye said Nigerians are ignorant and fail to read up the mandate of NAFDAC. According to her, regulation of fresh food products is not within the powers of NAFDAC but the Ministry of Agriculture. According to Professor Adeyeye, NAFDAC only regulates processed and semi-processed food items.
In her words
‘’Nigerians are very ignorant, We don’t read, We don’t understand. From farm to fork, there are many organizations that are involved. NAFDAC mandate is for processed or semi-processed food. So the oranges you buy in the market, we don’t, we don’t control the oranges we buy in the market, however, if somebody puts pesticide on that orange, wehave to train the farmer not to harvest on time. We have to train the farmers with the Ministry of Agriculture. It is the Ministry of Agric that has the primary mandate for fresh produce.
However, because we approve and regulate the use of pesticides, we have the obligation to train them on how to use it based on direction on the label. We have
We have about 56% illetracy. If it is a literate country, they will read. Which one ‘’put one teaspoon in one gallon”. Sometimes, our people don’t understand. They think the more you put, the better”
