The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Association of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE) at the weekend agreed to further collaborate to ensure food safety culture is entrenched in Nigeria.
The decision to jointly chart a new path for food safety in the country was reached on Friday in Lagos at the 2024 End-of-Year Stakeholders’ dialogue and feedback session by NAFDAC, where they both as the regulator and industry operators had frank discussions with the aim of ensuring food safety in the country/
The agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who was represented by the Director of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN), Mrs Eva Edwards, disclosed that the dialogue session with the FSAN Directorate had become part of the agency’s yearly programme, with the session being the third in a series.
She said: “This is our third consecutive end-of-year dialogue and feedback session, so I dare say it has come to stay as a way of continually striving to serve you better,’’ she said, adding that the engagement was aimed at having a meaningful dialogue about food safety, share insights and collaboratively address the challenges faced in ensuring the safety and quality of the food supply.”
While noting that the dialogue demonstrates the critical role that the food sector plays in safeguarding public health and sustaining consumer trust, Adeyeye added that it also served as a platform to discuss salient concerns and share information on new developments and the NAFDAC’s regulatory processes for food manufacturing facilities in Nigeria.
According to her, food safety is a shared responsibility and the agency, in collaboration with the AFBTE, has a moral obligation to protect the health of our communities.
The NAFDAC boss maintained that the impact of unsafe food can be far reaching, affecting not only public health but also economies and trade, stressing that the food sector has a critical role to play in implementing robust food safety standards, adopting innovative solutions, and fostering a food safety culture.
She further clarified: “As regulators, our job is to provide appropriate guidance leading to voluntary compliance, working with you, alongside you, to address challenges in meeting regulatory requirements.
‘This is essentially the reason for our gathering today, to have frank discussions. How can we serve you better? What went well in 2024 and what did not go well in 2024? In which areas would we like to see improvement on both sides; our side as regulators and your side as industry? Where are the gaps? What opportunities do we see and how can we leverage those opportunities.
“Our desire is to create a food safety ecosystem that is proactive, transparent and resilient. We are focusing on initiatives like risk categorisation of local food establishments, while discussions on digital food traceability have commenced with the service provider”, the Director-General added.
Adeyeye maintained that the agency’s initiatives were aimed at improving the food safety system, charging the participants at the forum to use it to exchange ideas to address concerns and chart a path towards ensuring a safe and sustainable food system for Nigeria.
In addition, she disclosed that the agency had received many applications from manufacturers for change in formulation of their products, pointing out that when applications for change in formulation are received, the agency always works to verify that such changes in formulation would not have negative effects on the nutritional contents or value of the products based on scientific justification.
The Chairman of the Technical Committee of the AFBTE, Mr. Fred Chiazor, commended NAFDAC for the opportunity given to the industry operators to rub minds on the way forward for the industry in the coming year.
He said: “Things have changed in NAFDAC. We are no more in the era of Police and criminal. I caught you here, I did not catch you there. Rather, we are becoming more strategic in our thinking.”
He advised members of the association to be open as they would not be victimised for objectively speaking on their observations and suggestions on ensuring a safe and sustainable food system in the country.
Photo Caption
L-R: The Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Association of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), Mr. Fred Chiazor and the Director of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at NAFDAC, Mrs Eva Edwards, at the 2024 End-of-Year Stakeholders’ dialogue and feedback session by the agency held on Friday in Lagos
