Newsbreak: No more Indomie Noodles as NAFDAC bans popular Nigerian delicacy over Cancer

Hungry Nigerians ignore NAFDAC

By Samuel Ogunsona

Nigerians must stop eating Indomie to avoid cancer.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, on Monday banned Indomie Noodles, one of the most famous easy to make food in Nigeria.

However, many Nigerians appear not to be aware of NAFDAC directives.

At Ikeja and Ibadan, our correspondents observes many makeshift food vendors continue to dish out Indomie menu to their clients.

“It’s cheap for many poor people. We are not aware of what NAFDAC is saying” Sola Ogunmola, a food vendor at Ibadan who sells Indomie Noodles told our correspondent.

In Lagos, Mallam Sanni Bello at Ketu who runs a popular food centre said he was not aware of NAFDAC directives signalling a huge communication gap between the people and the regulatory agency.

Indomie Noodles is the favourite of many Nigerians, especially children.

On Monday, NAFDAC said the food has now been banned.

There will be no more importation of Indomie henceforth, according to NAFDAC.

The Director General of the Agency, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, reiterated this in a press statement made available to Irohinoodua on Monday stated Indomie will no longer be imported to Nigeria

The NAFDAC boss said “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.”

She said further “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 said Nigerian will be duly updated with the outcomes of the investigation.

Taiwan and Malaysia already banned the item from those countries.

There has been global outcry over the discovery of ethylene oxide, a cancer causing agent.

NAFDAC 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.

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NAFDAC also said the agency will launch random sampling of indomie noodles including the flavour at the Nigeria secondary production facilities from this week.

The World Health Organisation, WHO, had identified ethylene oxide a a colourless, highly reactive and flammable gas widely used as an intermediate in the production of various chemicals.

WHO said from investigations, epidemiological findings suggested an increase in the incidence of human cancer, adding that the report concludes that ethylene oxide should be considered as a probable human carcinogen, and that its levels in the environment should be reduced the a safe level