In a bid to safeguard the health of Nigerians, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it plans to re-certify food manufacturing companies in the country.
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The Director-General of the agency, Dr Paul Orhii, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday that the essence was to ensure they adhered to high quality hygiene practices.
“We are inspecting food facilities all over the country, we will re-certify them, we will make sure they conform to good hygiene practices.
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“And I think we will try to make sure that they are properly fortified with macro-nutrient, so that we safe guard the health of Nigerians.
“The only problem we have in the food industry is that, there are food products that are very cheap, for example, a package of biscuit that cost just about 10 naira, and you want to verify and the verification may cost about 15 naira, most people will not pay for that because it will raise the cost of that biscuit to 25 naira.
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“So, we are trying to explore how to use the same technology in protecting the food industries without re-curing this extra cost. “
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Speaking on the importance of water to life, the NAFDAC boss said the agency had already begun the re-certification of water packaging factories.
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Orhii also said the agency was taking adequate measures to ensure that packaged water factories met the minimum Nigeria Industrial Standard (NIS) for producing portable water.
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He noted that the consumption of contaminated water could cause diseases such as diarrhoea and typhoid fever, among others.
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The NFDAC D-G urged Nigerians to verify the expiry dates and NAFDAC registration number on products before buying them.? (NAN)