NAFDAC Uncovers Factory of Expired Food Items

 

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control  (NAFDAC) has uncovered an illegal factory within the Trade Fair Complex in Lagos, loaded with various expired food condiments worth millions of naira.

 It arrested a 24–year-old,  Victor Ebuka Okeke, in connection with the expired products.the factory according to The Nation which was originally a one- shop, was said to have been used to stock, re-validate and distribute expired products.   Some of the expired products discovered in the factory include expired Maggi Sauce with manufacturing dates: 15/08/2011 and expiry dates: 15/08/2014, Amoy Dark Soy Sauce, Costa Corned Beef and Exeter Corned beef, among other

For the Costa Corned Beef, whether expired or not, the 24-year -old suspect, changed their labels to Exeter Corned Beef, which, according to him, was to attract patronage because it was a fast moving brand in the market.

Addressing reporters    shortly after the exercise, the leader of the NAFDAC team and Assistant Director, Enforcement Operations, Mr. Shaba Mohammed, said the agency had been on the trail of the alleged owner of the factory, following intelligence report.

He said the suspect, who also claimed to be the managing director of the factory, was caught re-validating the expiry dates of Maggi Arome sauce and Amoy Soy sauce, smuggled into the country from Ghana, from 2014 to August 2016.According to him, the products expired in August 15, last year.

“The suspect was also caught changing labels of Costa corned beef to Exeter corned beef,” he added

Mohammed, who said the suspect had refused to provide information regarding the whereabouts of over 902 cartons of expired Maggi sauce, said the agency would charge him to court for counterfeiting.

“We have arrested the suspect and evacuated the remaining products in the illegal factory. We are also charging him for counterfeiting. Some of the products were not registered by NAFDAC. The products were smuggled in from Ghana.  What we found cannot be consumed.  We saw two drums filled with ordinary water which he used to immerse the products and the labels will remove without any trace and are replaced with re-validated labels.”

He added that most of the re-validated products had been pushed into the market.Mohammed said consuming such products could lead to terminal diseases, such as liver and kidney ailments, which are on the rise in the country.He said the sauces are sodium-based products that could 

cause hypertension, if consumed.

The assistant director also said the suspect would be arraigned in court.