By Zayamu Hassan
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has disclosed that Nigerians will have no need of medicine if they imbibe the habit of eating healthy foods.
The Director General of the agency, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, who disclosed this at the World Food Safety Day 2022, urged Nigerians to always ensure that only safe, and wholesome food are consumed to enhance boosting the immunity and improving the body’s natural defences in fighting diseases.
She explained that eating right means making healthy food choices from safe, wholesome, and nutritious foods.
The 4th World Food Safety Day 2022 was with the theme ‘Safer Food, Better Health.’
He stressed that where food is unsafe, our nutritional goals cannot be achieved.
According to her, safe food is an essential component of sustainable development and contributes towards improvement of public health, poverty reduction, and increased food security.
She noted that the theme for this year is very apt, as the world gradually returns to normal with the COVID-19 pandemic having lost its firm grip on the world.
“You all know my popular saying about not needing medicine if one eats right. Eating right means making healthy food choices from safe, wholesome, and nutritious foods,” she said.
She stressed that the occasion of World Food Safety Day is an added opportunity for us to create and generate awareness around food safety and situate it as a very significant issue of public health concern, especially in the light of safe, wholesome food being important for boosting immunity and improving the body’s natural defenses in fighting diseases.
The NAFDAC boss disclosed that unsafe foods are the cause of many diseases and contribute to other poor health conditions, such as impaired growth and development.
“We know that food safety is a shared responsibility, and everyone has a role to play in ensuring we have safer food for better health: from growers to processors, to transporters, sellers, buyers, and those who prepare or serve food.
“Policy makers, educational institutions and workplaces, as well as consumers are not left out; food safety is the responsibility of all. We must all work together to help achieve safer food for better health,” she said.
She urged policy makers and food regulators to design all public procurement of food, such as food aid, school feeding and other publicly owned food outlets, so that consumers can access safe and healthy foods.
Prof Adeyeye added that they should support policy measures and legal frameworks to strengthen the national food safety system and ensure it complies with food safety standards and regulations.
She, however, urged them to encourage and engage in multisectoral collaboration at the local, national, regional, and global levels.
The DG said food businesses should also engage employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders to grow and develop a food safety culture; and comply with international and national food standards.
Adeyeye further said educational institutions and workplaces should promote safe food handling as well as engage with families and involve them in food safety activities.
She, therefore, admonished consumers to practice safe food handling at home and follow the WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food: keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures and use safe water and raw materials.
She pointed out that NAFDAC as a key actor in the Nigerian food safety system has the responsibility to key into global best practices that ensure that food placed on the market for sale is safe, wholesome, nutritious and of good quality.
“We have seized the opportunity of the World Food Safety Day to put together this capacity building event for staff members, and I believe that it will provide an additional layer of awareness and knowledge on food safety as well as ensure a food safety culture that will go beyond the celebration of World Food Safety Day today, while making us true advocates of the consumption of safe foods, leading to improved health outcomes,” she said.
