The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has come out to clarify to Nigerians that Indomie Instant Noodles produced in Nigeria are safe and healthy for consumption.
A statement by the Director-General, Prof Mrs Mojisola Adeyeye reacted to circulating information about a purported ban.
The agency is probing the reported discovery of a harmful substance in the product after probes by the authorities in two Asian countries.
‘NAFDAC has registered several local manufacturers and the Indomie noodles have been certified safe for consumption,” Adeyeye noted.
‘NAFDAC did not ban Indomie Instant Noodles produced in Nigeria…The Taiwan and Malaysia noodles have nothing to do with our local producers.’
Read Also: Cancer: Real Reason We Banned Indomie Noodles —NAFDAC
Africa Today News, New York reports that the cancer-causing ethylene oxide, used to sterilize medical devices and sometimes used as a pesticide, was found in Indomie’s ‘special chicken’ flavour in Taiwan and Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Dufil Prima Foods Limited has also issued an official position through its Group Communications Manager, Tope Ashiwaju.
The company said its noodles distributed across Nigeria ‘are produced locally under strict international best manufacturing procedures with ISO certified standards’.
Recall that NAFDAC had earlier revealed that it will commence random sampling of Indomie noodles, including the seasoning, from the production facilities.
Announcing this in a statement, the Director-General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who explained that the compound of interest was ethylene oxide said, already, the Director of the Food Lab Services Directorate has been engaged and has started working on the methodology for the analysis.
Adeyeye said: ‘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, however, promised that Nigerians will be duly updated with the outcomes of the investigation.
According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, ethylene oxide is a colourless, highly reactive and flammable gas widely used as an intermediate in the production of various chemicals.