By Sodeinde Temidayo David
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against the use of formalin for the preservation of frozen poultry products and other food items.
NAFDAC’s spokesman, Mr Abubakar Jimoh, disclosed that crooked business people were in the habit of using formalin for preserving frozen foods, particularly chicken and turkey. The formalin is capable of preserving such products for weeks before they get to consumers, but the consumption of the chemical is dangerous to health.
Formalin is a poisonous chemical popularly used to preserve corpses in mortuaries and according to the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, ingesting as little as 30 millilitres (ml) of the solution containing 37 per cent of formaldehyde is enough to kill an adult.
The high intake of formalin in the body through the continuous consumption of such products and food items preserved with formalin, and most of which are probably not well cooked, can lead to cancers of the blood (leukaemia) and lymphatic system.
To avert this, the agency is calling on Nigerians to be careful of the consumption of frozen foods as it is not only bad for the health, it has a negative effect on the economy as it robs local poultry farmers of their right to livelihood.
“NAFDAC is alerting Nigerians about this practice (of using formalin to preserve frozen foods). There are more poultry products in the country than to resort to frozen chicken smuggled in, in spite of Nigerian government’s ban,” Mr Jimoh said.
He also called the attention of consumers to the economic import of patronising business people who smuggled poultry products into the country.
He said if such patronage continues, indigenous poultry farmers and marketers would not grow as desired as money spent on smuggled products would only go to originators of the products, adding that the patronage of imported or smuggled products would also continue to affect Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves.
Modupe Gbadeyanka