The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued another statement about Indomie noodles’ purchase and consumption in Nigeria.
Earlier, NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, was quoted to have announced that Indomie noodles’ importation to Nigeria has been banned following allegations of a cancer-causing chemical found in the noodles and non-registration of the agency.
A recent discovery by health officials in Malaysia and Taiwan triggered the announcement, Naija News understands. The experts are said to have detected ethylene oxide, a compound in Indomie’s “special chicken” flavour noodles.
Ethylene oxide is a colourless, odourless gas used to sterilise medical devices and spices and is said to be a cancer-causing chemical.
Adeyeye, while reacting to the development, reportedly said the agency would begin random sample tests of the noodles and other brands from May 2.
The NAFDAC Director-General reportedly said the agency started investigating once it got wind of the recall of the products by Taiwan and Malaysia authorities.
In a contrary statement on Tuesday, Adeyeye asked consumers not to fret over the South Asia countries’ preemptive measures
According to Channels Television, the NAFDAC boss denied reports of banning Indomie instant noodles and has assured consumers that the product is safe for consumption.
“NAFDAC did not ban Indomie,” Professor Adeyeye reportedly told the broadcasting station in a telephone conversation.
“Indomie has been on the government prohibition list for many years to encourage local manufacturing,” she said, stressing that the agency has countermeasures to prevent the importation of these products from affected nations.
NAFDAC has registered several local manufacturers and the Indomie noodles have been safe.
The Taiwan and Malaysia noodles have nothing to do with our local producers,” she said.
Professor Adeyeye, however, stated that it was in no way disregarding the reports but “is responding to the news as a cautionary post-marketing monitoring measure to ensure that locally-made noodles stay safe.”
She also said NAFDAC will begin random sampling of Indomie noodles, including the seasoning, from the production facilities to ascertain their safety levels for consumption.
