‘You are what you eat’ is a incredibly common indicating that prioritises the worth of taking in excellent food stuff to remain healthful and in shape. Because of to the consciousness produced by nutritionists and well being experts, people today are switching the way they feel about food items, becoming far more aware about what goes into their bodies via their mouths. Even so, as considerably as this consciousness is accumulating momentum and people today would love to consume healthily, it is an indubitable actuality that in the facial area of financial hardship, a lot of are succumbing to substituting top quality for amount.
An standard day in the current market would go away a buyer’s mouth agape at the scary volume of substandard merchandise throughout the food items chain coming beneath numerous model names and proclaiming to be superior to renowned manufacturers. The infiltration, which has been going on for a extensive time, is not only minimal to foods, it extends to pharmaceutical merchandise.
Regulatory agencies like the National Company for Foods and Drug Administration and Regulate and the Benchmarks Organisation of Nigeria have been major from the front in curbing the menace of substandard and bogus products and solutions in the current market. They have been executing this in their regulatory roles with a aim on excellent, distribution, sales and use of products. They also embark on advocacy campaigns and industry storms, which on some situations led to the apprehension of some producers of these sub-conventional or faux items. Someday in 2021, a sad occasion occurred in Kano where three individuals died having eaten an adulterated flavoured drink. Exams performed by NAFDAC on the adulterated drinks unveiled the addition of risky chemical substances as additives. More conclusions by the company also uncovered only two of the 5 flavoured beverages recognized in the regrettable incident were registered in NAFDAC’s databases, the other a few ended up not.
In gentle of these happenings, the normal Nigerian needs to decide up the place NAFDAC remaining off by making sure that the solutions they are obtaining have NAFDAC approval. As significantly as quite a few may want to get cheap and in big portions, try to remember you might be compromising your wellbeing. It is pertinent to verify critical particulars these kinds of as the day of output, expiry date, manufacturer title, and NAFDAC acceptance, amid other vital data.
In latest moments, Kaduna and some elements of the North have been intensely infiltrated with unbranded and substandard monosodium glutamate, with wellness professionals boosting the alarm around the impending overall health implications. Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, a flavour enhancer that has been employed successfully for over a century to deliver out the most effective flavours in food. The food tradition of the North, getting an age-aged custom of spicy and seasoned delicacies that fill the atmosphere with an inviting aroma, is a match produced in palatability for the adoption of monosodium glutamate in their cooking. Small surprise it continues to be the biggest marketplace for this brand name of seasoning.
As delicious as this mix may possibly audio, there is threat in the abuse of the marketplace with unbranded monosodium glutamate by merchants, who are hell-bent on forcing harmful meals into the bodies of persons. These unbranded monosodium glutamates are bought in the open from uncovered sacks and in measurements to unsuspecting potential buyers, who have picked out amount over excellent. Not like foremost brand names which are packed in sachets, NAFDAC-permitted, and offered in nutritious measurements, these unbranded types are the reverse. The alarming portion is that their suppliers simply cannot be traced to test for their authenticity. A lot more worrisome is that they are marketed on the low-priced, which could be a signifier of their being substandard and unhealthy for human consumption.
As mentioned earlier, the accountability does not belong to NAFDAC, SON and other regulatory bodies alone, just about every Nigerian need to look out for by themselves and their fellow citizens to avert this looming health hazard. Foods sellers must be conscious of the overall health of their customers by employing common branded items in their cooking, the very same goes for households – wives and housekeepers must not perform video games with the wellbeing of their household associates. If we all can imbibe the saying, ‘You are what you eat’ when we pay a visit to the market, we will save lots of from severe wellbeing concerns by shouting down the merchants of unbranded monosodium glutamate, the sellers of pretend/substandard prescription drugs, the sellers of adulterated flavoured drinks and bottled water, among other objects that provide as refreshments.
Olamide Bakare, a public affairs commentator, writes from Lagos