NAFDAC, The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, has reiterated that it has forbidden the importation of Indomie noodles into the nation over Cancer scare.
In a press release on Monday, the agency’s director general, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, reaffirmed this.
Following the discovery of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing agent, Taiwan and Malaysian authorities recalled indomie noodles.
The head of NAFDAC claimed that the substance of interest was ethylene oxide and that the director of the food lab services directorate had already been contacted and was working on the analysis’s methodology.
She said in the statement that,” Indomie noodles have been banned from being imported into the country for many years. It is one of the foods on the government prohibition list. It is not allowed in Nigeria, and therefore not registered by NAFDAC.
“What we are doing is an extra caution to ensure that the product is not smuggled in, and if so, our post marketing surveillance would detect it. We also want to be sure that the spices used for the Indomie and other noodles in Nigeria are tested.
“That is what NAFDAC Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN) and Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) are doing this week at the production facilities and in the market, respectively.”
She did, however, vow to properly inform Nigerians of the investigation’s findings.
The agency announced that it will start randomly sampling indomie noodles, along with the seasoning, from the manufacturing sites tomorrow (Tuesday).
Ethylene oxide, according to the World Health Organization, is a colorless, highly reactive, and extremely flammable gas that is frequently employed as an intermediary in the synthesis of several compounds.
Ethylene oxide should be regarded as a probable human carcinogen, according to a report by WHO, and its levels in the environment should be kept as low as practical. The report also noted that findings from animal investigations, test systems, and epidemiological findings suggested an increase in the incidence of human cancer.
