NSPRI Cautions Against Smoked Fish Consumption

A lorry load of cassava produce being conveyed to the market in Nasarawa State

The Executive Director, Ni
gerian Stored Products Reasearch Institute (NSPRI) Prof. Olufemi Peters, has warned against the consumption of locally smoked  fish in order to avoid any health hazard.
In a statement obtained at the Port Harcourt office of the institute recently by our correspondent, Peters stated that regular consumption of locally smoked fish which he said,contained “poly aromatic hydrocarbon” could cause cancer.
According to him, one of the main disadvantages of the way indigenous fishermen smoked their fish was through processes that were capable of making the presence of the substance go into the smoked fish.
“Because they do not know the side effects of this method, they allow the substance to go back to the fish they smoked,” he said.
Peters who is a professor of chemistry explained that   it was due to this hazardous substance that made the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) Nigeria to commission three research institutes to design environmentally friendly smoking kiln.
He said NSPRI, Nigeria Fisheries and Fresh Water Research Institute (NFFRI), New Bussa, Niger State and Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and  Marine Research (NIOMR) Lagos   were mandated to design the cost effective kiln.
According to him the aim of the smoking kiln was to reduce post-harvest loss especially in fish.
“One of the technologies we focused on was to design smoking kiln that would reduce or eliminate the carcinogenic material and NSPRI has been able to do this,” he added.