The video, which initially circulated online late November, showed a man mixing a concentrated dye into palm oil to enhance its colour.
Medical professionals and concerned consumers are warning that this practice, aimed at mimicking the rich red hue of high-quality palm oil, poses severe health risks, including cancer.
An online doctor aproko doctor took to X to speak, he wrote'
This is wickedness. What do you mean you’re putting dye inside palm oil just so that it will look red? And then you’re selling it to people, knowing that what people are actually drinking or putting in their food is not actual palm oil but something mixed with dye.
“There are certain dyes that are actually carcinogenic, which can actually lead to cancer in some people. So, when you hear things like our life expectancy in Nigeria is 50-something years old, these are part of the reasons,” he said.
Citizens are pleading with NAFDAC to launch immediate investigations and track down the culprit featured in the video.
“This is what the government is supposed to be doing: conducting inspections and using mystery shoppers to track down people like him. As a citizen, you can’t be too careful. Once it enters the market, how do you vet to know if what you’re buying is good or not?” #leofreddie07 wrote on X.
NafdacAgency, please help investigate and bring to book this evil act. Nigerian lives are shortchanged for quick money,” tweeting as #Vin_Rouge_King, Kingsley Bassey added.
On Facebook, Nnenna Nnabuife echoed, “National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control. Please regulate the informal food market.”
Calls were also made for broader action, including probing the processing of other food items like tomato paste, vegetable oil, and stockfish, which consumers allege might also be subject to similar adulteration.
“That same chemical is also allegedly used to make tomato paste. Please let them tell us the ingredients in that tomato paste that gives it that reddish colour,” Hycenth Ifeanyi Udodili said on Facebook.
Post a Comment