The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has assured consumers of Indomie and other noodle brands in Nigeria of the safety of the staple food amongst children and some adults.
It stated that investigations by the agency have revealed that Indomie Noodles implicated in the recalls in Malaysia and Taiwan are not in Nigeria.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, according to a statement, disclosed this on Thursday at the MAN House, Ikeja, Lagos during the Quarterly Interactive session between the Agency and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN, where she implored Nigerians to always eat safe.
“I love to eat good food, including noodles. But I want to be sure that the food I am eating is not going to make me sick, take medicine. And if I am taking medicine the food that I am eating will not make me add to the medicine that I am taking. Therefore, I take food very, very seriously,” she said.
She explained that immediately the news of the recalls of Indomie Noodles from Malaysia and Taiwan got to Nigeria she directed the Director, Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Mrs. Eva Edwards, and Director of Laboratory Services (Food), Dr Charles Nwachukwu, respectively to begin tripartite discussions with manufacturers and marketers.
The DG disclosed that someone asked her when the results were going to come out, adding that the Agency had run all the necessary tests. “But we needed a chemical standard. It’s all science. We are a science organization, and our processes are science driven. We cannot conduct our own Nigerian science. No. We have to use the international standard chemical agents and things like that.”
She insisted that the implicated foreign noodles are not in Nigeria, hence, the locally produced noodles are safe for human consumption.
