Ogbono Beans, Egusi, Other Nigerian Foods Rejected Abroad

No fewer than ten Nigerian foods and goods are currently rejected abroad, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) revealed.

While delivering a speech at the 3rd CHINET Aviacargo conference during the weekend in Lagos, the Deputy Director, Export Division, Ports Inspection Directorate, NAFDAC, Sanwo-Olu O.A., revealed some of the commonly rejected export food commodities from Nigeria from 2018 till date and in the top 10 include sesame, beans, melon seeds, peanut and smoked fish/fish meal, ginger, spices paper, hibiscus flower, palm oil and ogbono.

According to her, the goods are rejected abroad due to non-adherence to standardised clearance procedures by stakeholders.

In the speech titled “Unlocking the Logistics Barrier to Improving Agro Exports Products,” Sanwo-Olu blamed the rejection on non-adherence to set standards by freight forwarders, cargo handlers, airlines/carriers, and regulatory agencies, as well as poor inter-agency collaboration amongst others.

The NAFDAC official, hence, called for collaboration among stakeholders to ensure that export trade meets the requirements of the country’s trading partner in terms of quality, standards and quantity as trade increases.

Meanwhile, NAFDAC had earlier taken some steps on pre-packaged foods with fats and oils in Nigeria.

The agency, as gathered by Naija News, reviewed regulations concerning pre-packaged food labelling because of their effect on high rates of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like hypertension, heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, among others.

The agency, at a press briefing, announced the gazette of reviewed Fats, Oil, and Food containing Fats and Oil Regulation 2022 and Pre-Packaged Food Labelling Regulation 2022.

The new regulation, according to the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye, nullifies the 2005 versions of the standards, which is repealed without jeopardising whatever was purportedly done in the spirit of the old versions.

Adeyeye explained that it has become mandatory for the agency to implement the new regulation because of the alarming rate of deaths caused by these chronic diseases, which are mostly related to the consumption of excess fat and unhealthy packaged foods.

She cited the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, indicating that NCDs are responsible for 74 per cent of all deaths worldwide.

She revealed that NCDs are estimated to account for about a quarter of total deaths in Nigeria, and the probability of dying between ages 30 and 70 years from the main NCDs is 20 per cent.

The NAFDAC boss said, in real terms, more than 36 million people die yearly from NCDs, stating that cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death, accounting for 17.5 million deaths annually.

Adeyeye said WHO, at the 2018 World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, called on countries to eliminate industrially produced trans fats – Trans Fatty Acid (TFAs) from global food supplies.

She said the United Nations agency released an action package called ‘Replace’, which includes policy recommendations and interventions for governments, which the WHO has recommended as one of the two policy pathways for implementation.