By : Admin
The Nigerian Council of Food Science and Technology (NiCFOST) has launched a groundbreaking Food Safety Operational Manual aimed at improving food safety standards among food vendors, market traders, and other food business operators nationwide.
The event held in Abuja also featured hands-on training for food safety officers, equipping them to enforce hygiene rules and protect public health.
The Registrar and CEO of NiCFOST, Mrs. Veronica Eze, raised an alarm over unsafe food practices linked to life-threatening illnesses like kidney failure, liver cirrhosis, and cancer.
“This manual empowers our officers with the knowledge to detect and stop unethical practices that put millions of Nigerians at risk,” she said. “Causing innocent people to consume food contaminated with harmful chemicals is worse than armed robbery; it causes slow, painful deaths.”
Mrs Eze said the enforcement will start in the FCT area councils before expanding across the country.
The manual outlines clear guidelines for food inspection, documentation, and reporting, targeting common violations such as poor refrigeration, unsafe handling, and contamination with unapproved chemicals.
In a keynote address, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Uche Nnaji, who described the manual as a major step toward safer food in the country, especially in the informal sector, pledged to back the manual with action.
In his statement “We’re mandating our agencies to develop affordable technologies for food processing and preservation. We’ll use digital tools to educate informal vendors and align this initiative with WHO, FAO, and Codex global standards.”
Represented by Prof Samson Duna, Director General of the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Nnaji called on local governments to hire licensed food scientists and urged donors and partners to support grassroots food safety initiatives.
“We must make this manual a living tool, not something gathering dust on shelves,” he said.
Earlier, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, stressed that unsafe food not just only harms individuals, but threatens families, communities, and economic development.
“Research shows 20% of hospital admissions in urban Nigeria are linked to foodborne diseases,” Pate said,
Prof Pate who was represented by Mrs. Adeola Olufowobi-Yusuf of the Federal Ministry of Health emphasized the critical role of food scientists, innovations, and continuous training in protecting public health.
Regulators from NAFDAC and SON as well as law makers in their goodwill messages commended the Council for the successful launch of the manual and pledged to work closely with it to ensure food vendors align with global best practices.
