EU health officials reject five Nigerian food product exports over food safety concerns

EUROPEAN Union (EU) health officials rejected 24 Nigerian food items during the course of 2016 because they failed to meet the community set standards according to recent data just released by the National Agency for Food And Drug Administration and Control (Nafdac).

 

Over recent years, Nigeria has intensified efforts to diversify her economy and this has included seeking to boost the export of food and cash crops. However, according to Nafdac spokesman Dr Abubakar Jimoh EU health officials rejected exports of groundnuts, palm oil, sesame seeds and beans over safety concerns.

 

He noted that the groundnuts were rejected because they contained aflatoxin, which made the quality substandard. In a bid to guarantee food safety, the EU has very strict aflatoxin limits and products which levels that exceed it are not allowed into the community.

 

Dr Jimoh said: “The exported palm oil did not scale through the EU’s test because it also contained a colouring agent that was carcinogenic. Beans was banned by EU sometime ago but it was illegally exported to European countries.

 

“Beans was initially banned for one year, when the EU was not satisfied with our exported beans in terms of quality assurance, it extended the ban by another two years, which expires next year. Nafdac and other regulatory agencies of the government are working round the clock to ensure that when the ban is lifted, we can then begin to export more agricultural products to EU."

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