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From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Association for Promotion of Food Safety and Improved Nutrition (APFSAN) Kebbi State and the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Birnin Kebbi (FUBK), Professor Muhammad Zaiyan Umar, have sought tight collaborations among various organizations, agencies and developing partners to ensure hygienic food in Nigeria.
APFSAN State Coordinator Dr Yusuf Abdulrahaman and the Vice of FUBK made the plea during the food Safety and nutrition summit held at the University premises to commemorate World Food Safety Day in the state.
Abdulrahaman, while speaking at the opening ceremony of the event, entitled: “food standards save lives”, noted that, they decided to host the summit in the Northern part of Nigeria, Kebbi State for the first time, because of the urgent need to correct statistics of unsafe food in the state.
“When we were in Abeokuta, we decided to host the summit in the Northern state and Kebbi state was chosen because of bad statistics of unsafe food. That is why we gathered all the scholars here to enlighten us on how to ensure the safety of food,” he said.
In his remark, Professor Umar, who described the summit as an armful opportunity to find solutions to unsafe food, noted that his university would give maximum support to any organisation which focused on the safety of food.
According to him, “This occasion provides us with an armful opportunity for us to tap from the experience of our scholars across Nigeria who are here to lecture us on how to utilise food for our good health.
“This programme is the first of its kind in Northern Nigeria. I want to say here that, the university will always welcome this kind of initiative from different organisations to curtain food crisis.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, Professor Abbas Yusuf Bazata, disclosed that hundreds of thousands of people especially those under the age of 5 have died in Africa and South Asia due to unsafe food.
“Unsafe food is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. And yet, food safety has not received the political attention it deserves. How many people who have diarrhoea will consult a doctor? Very few. If they do, what are the chances the symptom will be linked to contaminated food? Very low.
“Because of massive under-reporting, the global burden of foodborne disease remained unknown until WHO published the first estimates in 2015.
“Today, we know that foodborne diseases caused by chemicals, viruses, bacteria and parasites kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. Those mostly affected are children under five in Africa and South Asia”, he said.
The programme was however attended by the representatives of USAID-IHP, Nutrition Agencies and others.
