Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has restated the commitment of the Federal Government to ensuring safe food practices to reduce food borne diseases in the country.
Prof. Adewole made this known shortly after a two-day sensitization program on the National Policy on Food Safety of the federal government held in Ibadan.
The aims of the policy were to promote safe food practices, improve agricultural productivity and sustainability, improve quality and safety of farm produce, as well as, reduce food borne diseases.
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, who was represented by the Director, Food and Drug Services Department in the ministry, Mrs Anthonia Opara, said over the years, food safety had not been given the attention it deserved especially in the area of planting, harvesting, processing, storage and consumption.
The minister said the sensitization program was aimed at encouraging state governments to embrace the food safety policy to optimize the synergy between both tiers of government in promoting the health of the citizens.
In a remark, a national expert on food safety from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, Mr John Tehinse noted that the national policy on food safety would help reduce the rejection of Nigerian food produced in international communities and also increase consumers’ confidence in local food produce.
Mr Tehinse added that the policy would help strengthen and modernise the laws regulating food safety system in the country to meet with international standards.
Recently, Nigeria has been plagued with outbreaks of preventable food borne disease such as Cholera, Lassa fever and Chemical contamination due to poor food safety culture.
Worried by this plague, the federal government through the ministry of health formulated a National Food Policy
