The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is investigating the recall of noodles by Taiwan and Malaysia authorities over the discovery of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing agent, in the product.
Reaffirming a long-standing ban on importation of Indomie noodles, the Director-General of the Agency, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, announced that the Director of the Food Lab Services Directorate has begun working on the analysis methodology.
On Tuesday, May 2, the agency's Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate will randomly sample Indomie noodles and the seasoning from production facilities, while the Post Marketing Surveillance Directorate will sample from the markets.
According to Adeyeye, "Indomie noodles have been banned from being imported into the country for many years. It is one of the foods on the government prohibition list. It is not allowed in Nigeria, and therefore not registered by NAFDAC."
She added that the agency is taking extra caution to ensure that the product is not smuggled into the country, and if so, their post-marketing surveillance would detect it. NAFDAC's Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN) and Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) are carrying out inspections this week at the production facilities and markets, respectively. The NAFDAC DG also promised to keep Nigerians informed about the investigation's outcome.
