The Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG, has explained why it is pushing for the National Food Safety and Quality Bill 2019 is passed into law by the National Assembly, as Nigerians deserve food safety regulations to safeguard their health, also for the benefit of Nigeria’s economy in order to make it competitive in global trade.
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, NESG, ‘Laoye Jaiyeola, has been in the forefront to ensure the Bill is passed into law, and recently Jaiyeola at the Experts/Stakeholders Workshop organised by NESG in Abuja said there is need to pass Bill into law if food production, processing, packaging, health, and profit making will be harnessed.
He also made it clear that for Nigerian non-oil products not to be turned back as currently experienced by some commodities exported abroad, the Bill should not be delayed anymore but should be passed into law and promptly assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It would be recalled that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, disclosed that European Union, EU, rejected 24 exported food products from Nigeria in 2016 for failing to meet standards.
The NAFDAC spokesperson, then Dr Abubakar Jimoh, made this known during a media briefing in Abuja, and mentioned that major commodities including groundnut, palm oil, sesame seed and beans that were illegally exported to the EU were part of the list of rejected agro products from Nigeria.
According to Jimoh, particularly, groundnut was rejected because it contained aflatoxin, which made the quality substandard; exported palm oil did not scale through the EU’s test because it also contained a coloring agent that was carcinogenic; Beans was banned by EU for illegal exportation to European countries, and also there was issue of EU not satisfied with Nigerian exported beans in terms of quality assurance, which the ban was extended by another two years.
Meanwhile, reports have it that the EU food safety authority explained that Nigerian beans was banned as it contained between 0.3mg per kg and 4.6mg per kg of Dichlorvos, which the maximum residue acceptable has a limit of 0.01 mg per kg.
Experts say Dichlorvos is highly toxic and causes difficulty in breathing, leads to diarrhoea, vomiting, convulsions, dizziness, and others.
Also yams exported from Nigeria in 2017 to United States of America, USA, were rejected.
He (Jaiyeola) speaking on the proposed law said, “You all know that lifting people out of poverty is one of the things that is very primary to Mr. President and reaching to the people in rural communities is another thing that is important to him, so that is why we are joining hand to bring everybody together so that is the focus of passing this bill.
“And unfortunately, despite the work that our people put in we either turned back there from overseas because of the quality of our exports.
“What we are trying to do is to make National Assembly realize that this bill is very important it is a national interest and if they is an thing that we all need to work together with stakeholders to cross our Ts and dot our ‘I’s, and let’s do it together.”
Part 5 Section 17 Sub-section(1) of the Bill states that, “Where a food or feed business operator considers or has reason to believe that a food or feed in his possession or which he has sold or consigned to another person is unsafe, he shall immediately initiate procedures to prevent the consumption of the product through recall or communication.
According to Part 5 Section 17 sub-sections 4,5,6 “A food business operator responsible for retail or distribution activities which do not affect the packaging, labeling, safety or integrity of he food shall, within the limits of his respective activities, initiate procedures to recall from the market products not in compliance with food-safety requirements.
“Food business operators responsible for retail or distribution activities shall communicate relevant competent authority relevant information necessary to trace a food and shall cooperate with any action to recall a product from the market taken by producers, processors, manufacturers and for safety of food.
“A food or feed business operator shall immediately inform the relevant competent authority if he considers or has reason to believe that a food which it had placed on the market may be injurious to human health.”
This Section 17 of the Bill serves a major panacea to sanitise and safeguard the health of Nigerians as it instills quality control and responsibility in the food or feed business space as it will make operators comply by prioritizing the health and safety of Nigerians when the Bill is passed into law, and also gives Nigerians the confidence to consume food from business outfits.
Meanwhile, Section 18 of Part 5 of the proposed law intends to solve the problem of traceability, and it reads in subsections 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, “Food and feed business operators shall establish measures for tracing of food-producing animals, food or feed and any other substance intended to be, or expected to be, incorporated into a food at all stages of production, processing and distribution, including packaging materials.
“Food or feed business operators shall put in place systems and procedures to identify any business operator; a-from whom they have received a food-producing animal, food or feed or any substance intended to be, or expected to be, incorporated into a food or feed; and b-to whom their products have been supplied.
“Food or feed business operators shall ensure that the information set out in sub-section (2) of this section is recorded and made available to the relevant competent authority on demand.
“Food or feed which is placed on the market or is likely to be placed on the market shall be labelled or otherwise identified through relevant documentation or other information to ensure its traceability.”
The Bill also made Content Inspection paramount in Section 22 subsections 1 and 2, “Inspections for official control of safety of food and feed shall include an investigation by an authorized offer into; a-the state and use which is made of the site, establishment, offices, plant surroundings, means of transport, machinery and equipment of food and feed business operators, particularly in relation to licence conditions specified under Section 15 of this Act; b-raw materials, ingredients, technology aids, and other products used for the preparation and production of food and feed; c-semi-finished food and feed; d-finished food and feed products; e-materials and articles intended to come into contact with food and feed; f-cleaning and maintenance products and processes and pesticides used by food and feed business operators in the course of their business; g-processes used for the manufacture or processing of food and feed; h-labelling and presentation of food; i-preservation methods.
“The operations enumerated in sub-section (1) of this section may, where necessary, be supplemented by: a-interviews with the food or feed business operator and with persons in the food or feed business; b- the reading of values recorded by measuring instruments installed by the undertaking; c- measurements carried out by the relevant Competent Authority, with its own instruments, or with instruments installed by the undertaking; or e-information contained in written and documentary material held by food or feed business operators.”
The Bill also pointed in Section 23 under sub-sections 1 and 2 that, “Persons who handle food, or materials which come into contact with food shall be subject to a hygiene inspection.
“The inspection referred to in sub-section 1 of this Section shall establish whether such persons comply with regulations concerning periodic medical examinations, technical qualification, health status, personal cleanliness and clothing.”
Meanwhile, the NESG boss re-emphasized, “So this is very important and what we are doing again is just to put our hearts there in the ring and bring all stakeholders together and then use the opportunity to urge the National Assembly that this is something that will be in the interest of Nigeria and the interest of everyone as long as we can get it pass to law and Mr. President can sign it.”
