Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has stated that illicit cooking practices, poverty and ignorance are fuelling the rise of kidney and liver diseases in the country.
According to her, many people due to ignorance use paracetamol as tenderiser in cooking meat and also use dye to make red oil, an act she described as shocking.
Adeyeye, who spoke while addressing newsmen yesterday in Lagos, said that the agency had engaged in a lot of public enlightenment to reduce the menace.She said that using paracetamol to cook is like digging one’s grave because when subjected to heat, the drug loses the pain-killing property and becomes highly acidic and dangerous for human consumption.
The NAFDAC director-general, who said that it was weird to learn that Nigerians use paracetamol to cook and warned of its ability to cause severe organ damage due to a chemical compound that undergoes change and becomes toxic to humans when exposed to extreme heat, said the agency had been working with the government to increase its capacity to serve the Nigerian people better, adding that in the midst of disease outbreaks in the country, basic hygiene practices should be adhered to.
She said that part of the plans was to engage corps members to educate the locals because illiteracy level has increased tremendously, adding that the fight against illicit food and drugs practices needs collaborative efforts from different stakeholders.
“We want to make NAFDAC very strong. We cannot have goals without having internal capacity. We have already started training. Our goal is to reach that level that will help NAFDAC manufacture vaccine,” she said.
