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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has advised Nigerians to ensure that only safe and wholesome food is consumed to boost immunity and improve the body’s natural defences in fighting diseases.
NAFDAC insisted that Nigerians do not need medicines if they eat right, stressing that eating right means making healthy food choices from safe, wholesome, and nutritious foods.
NAFDAC Director-General Prof.Mojisola Adeyeye, in a statement on Tuesday to commemorate the 2022 World Food Safety Day with the theme ‘Safer Food, Better Health’, disclosed that unsafe foods are the main cause of many diseases and contribute to other poor health conditions, such as impaired growth and development.
She stressed that the occasion of World Food Safety Day provided an opportunity to create and generate awareness around food safety and situate it as a very significant issue of public health concern, especially in the light of safe, wholesome food being important for boosting immunity and improving the body’s natural defences in fighting diseases.
She said: ‘’We know that food safety is a shared responsibility, and everyone has a role to play in ensuring we have safer food for better health starting from the growers to processors, to transporters, sellers, buyers, and those who prepare or serve food.
“Policymakers, educational institutions and workplaces, as well as consumers are not left out; food safety is the responsibility of all. We must all work together to help achieve safer food for better health’’.
She said her ‘call to action’ on the occasion of World Food Safety Day goes out to four groups of stakeholders, namely, policymakers and food regulators, food businesses, educational institutions and workplaces as well as the consumers.
She urged policymakers and food regulators to design all public procurement of food, such as food aid, school feeding and other publicly owned food outlets so that consumers can access safe and healthy foods.
She suggested that they support policy measures and legal frameworks to strengthen the national food safety system and ensure it complies with food safety standards and regulations.
She, however, urged them to encourage and engage in multisectoral collaboration at the local, national, regional, and global levels, insisting that food businesses should engage employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders to grow and develop a food safety culture; and comply with international and national food standards.
She equally urged educational institutions and workplaces to promote safe food handling as well as engage with families and involve them in food safety activities, and also admonished consumers to practice safe food handling at home and follow the WHO’s five keys to safer food: keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures and use safe water and raw materials.
She pointed out that NAFDAC as a key actor in the Nigerian food safety system has the responsibility to key into global best practices that ensure that food placed on the market for sale is safe, wholesome, nutritious and of good quality.
‘’We have seized the opportunity of the World Food Safety Day to put together a capacity-building event for staff members, and I believe that it will provide an additional layer of awareness and knowledge on food safety as well as ensure a food safety culture that will go beyond the celebration of World Food Safety Day, while making us true advocates of the consumption of safe foods, leading to improved health outcomes,” she added.
