NAFDAC, the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, announced that it will start randomly sampling Indomie noodles from the manufacturing facilities, including the seasoning.
Following the discovery of ethylene oxide, a carcinogen, Taiwan and Malaysian authorities recalled indomie noodles.
The Director of the Food Lab Services Directorate has already been engaged and is working on the methodology for the study, the agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, announced in a statement, identifying the component of interest as ethylene oxide.
The importation of Indomie noodles into the nation has long been prohibited, according to Mojisola. It is on the list of foods that the government forbids. It is not registered with NAFDAC because it is prohibited in Nigeria.
She said, “We are taking extra precautions to make sure the product is not being smuggled in; if it were, our post-marketing surveillance would catch it. Additionally, we want to confirm that Nigerian noodles and other foods use tested spices.”
This week, NAFDAC Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FSAN, and Post Marketing Surveillance, PMS, are carrying out such activities in turn at the manufacturing facilities and the market.
She did, however, guarantee that Nigerians would be properly informed of the investigation’s findings.
Ethylene oxide is a colorless, highly reactive, and combustible gas that is frequently employed as an intermediary in the synthesis of a variety of chemicals, according to the World Health Organization, or WHO.
The World Health Organization indicated in a report that evidence from studies on animals, test systems, and epidemiological findings suggested a rise in the incidence of human cancer.
Ethylene oxide should be regarded a possible human carcinogen, the investigation concluded, and its levels in the environment should be kept as low as practical.
