The importance of food safety cannot be overemphasized. Just like water, food is essential for human survival, and consuming it in its proper form is critical to maintaining good health.

However, when food becomes contaminated or mishandled, it poses serious risks, including foodborne illnesses and long-term health conditions. Unsafe food practices have been linked to diseases such as liver and kidney damage, as well as cancer.


While we have common food safety violations, there are other food safety violations that appear to escape the eyes of the average consumer or even the regulators, possibly due to lack of awareness or inability to identify the danger for what it is.

For example, it has been reported that in Benue State, butchers there are in the habit of roasting cows and goats with tyres. Despite a government clampdown, the practice continues, putting consumers at serious health risk.

Not just that, other food safety violations have been identified among food handlers and vendors in Nigeria.

One cannot forget the war the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) waged against bread manufacturers who used bromate to hasten the dough rising process. Unfortunately, the practice has not been completely eradicated, and the use of this carcinogenic chemical remains a concern.

What about fruit vendors who use dangerous chemicals like carbide, drainage water and soft drinks to ripen fruits quickly or food vendors who drug certain meats and foods to tenderize them? . There's also the adulteration of palm oil with a chemical known as Sudan dye(iv) (azo dye), the packaging of illicit alcohol falsely labelled and sold as spirit drinks; the conveying of cooking oil in a petrol tanker, fermenting cassava with bleach and many more. 

The culture of mishandling food and food products in Nigeria needs to stop. But for that to happen, we need stricter enforcement, better public education, and heightened awareness of the dangers these practices pose to public health.

Here, we discuss.