Traders, farmers using poisonous chemicals to preserve food, NAFDAC warns

Kerosine and petrol tankers are being used to convey vegetables to market while excessive pesticides are being applied on farmlands.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised the alarm that traders and farmers are using poisonous chemicals to preserve foods.

The agency also said kerosine and petrol tankers are being used to convey vegetables to market while excessive pesticides are being applied on farmlands.

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NAFDAC Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, stated this Tuesday during a town hall meeting with stakeholders in Bauchi.

Daily Trust reports that the meeting was to educate and enlighten the general public on some harmful practices by traders and farmers.

Adeyeye, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Fori Tatami, said NAFDAC had discovered the rising incidents of traders using formalin chemicals to preserve meat and fish in the markets.

Formalin, she explained, is a chemical used in preserving dead bodies.

Adeyeye admonished residents of Bauchi to be vigilant on the issue of tankers conveying vegetables to the markets, urging them to report to NAFDAC and other security operatives.

She said kerosine could contaminate vegetables and cause illness to the consumers.

She said another source of concern was the application of human antibiotics on animals, after which they are slaughtered and taken to markets.

She, however, said the agency was devising strategies to tackle the menace.

She advised Nigerians to be wary of reddish palm oil in the markets because some traders are adding a dangerous chemical.

She also urged fruit sellers to desist from using chemicals to reap fruits, thereby exposing consumers to cancer and other diseases.

Adeyeye also charged the people to stop buying drugs from hawkers, saying such drugs lose potency because of exposure to sunlight and rain.

“When you stop patronising drugs hawkers, you push them out of the business,” she said.

She cautioned traders against the excessive use of chemicals capable of causing diseases and deaths particularly snippers in preserving foods like Kilishi.

Earlier in her remark, State Director of NAFDAC, Josphine Daylin, said the enlightenment campaign would be extended to markets, shopping malls and other public places to educate the public on the harmful practices.