Agency to establish mobile laboratories to check contaminated agricultural products

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said on Monday that it would establish mobile laboratories in various parts of the country to check the movement of contaminated agricultural products.

Paul Orhii, Director General of NAFDAC, said this in Abuja when the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) retired Col. Hameed Ali, paid him a courtesy visit.

Orhii noted that the distribution and sale of contaminated food items had become a major threat to health and the country’s economy and as such there was need for proper monitoring.

The NAFDAC DG said that the organisation decided to establish the laboratories following deadline given by the European Union (EU) for the establishment of a risk management system to monitor contaminated food export.

"The European Union has given us a deadline of June 16 next year for us to have a risk management system in place for the reduction of these contaminants in the food export.

"Imagine that what is being rejected at the international market is what we eat here and we are also worried of the increased level of cancers, kidney failures and different diseases in this country.

"We have taken on that job to ensure we deploy mobile laboratories that will go from farm to farm, market to market, so that we can identify at what point the contaminants get into this products.

"Once we identify it, we will conduct public awareness workshops for the people who are growing these foods and exporting them,’’ Orhii said.

He urged NCS to ensure that food products were properly tested before they leaving the shores of the country to avoid being rejected at the international market.