Nigerians warned on consuming expired cereals
Nigerian consumers are to avoid unbranded cereals currently available in the market. Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), stated this in an advisory issued by the agency.
“We found out that some of the cereals were picked up from dump sites in Agbara,” she revealed.
“When a product is not certified by NAFDAC it is not advisable that anybody should consume it. The unbranded products in the market, do not have NAFDAC registration/marketing authorisation number,” she said.
She urged manufacturers and vendors of cereal brands during a session to ensure they dispose of their expired products properly.
“If you want to dispose of some bad or expired products, you are supposed to destroy it by NAFDAC Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, not by the company directly through waste disposal authorities. It will always get to scavengers who will sell it back to the market.”
She added, ‘’We cannot speak to the safety of unbranded food in the open market. We do not know where they have come from. We don’t know anything about the expiry date. We cannot trace.”
The NAFDAC boss said that her agency, in 2021 and 2022, arrested some persons selling expired cereals online in Onitsha. She blamed manufacturers and vendors for the reselling of the expired cereals.
