Business
NAFDAC Poised To Eliminate Solid Fats In Foods
Amid Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) accounting for 74 per cent of all deaths worldwide, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFCAC) said it has scaled up the elimination of Trans Fatty Acids (TFAs), an unhealthy fat present in many processed foods in Nigeria.
Trans fatty acids, commonly referred to as Trans fat, have been linked to an increase in the risk of heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancers and death.
This unhealthy fat occurs naturally in meat and dairy products, in hardened vegetable fats, such as margarine and snack food, baked foods, and fried foods.
Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, speaking at the briefing on the newly gazetted fats, oil and food-containing Fats, Oil Regulation 2022 and Pre-packaged Food Labelling Regulation 2022, in Lagos recently, said the agency is also considering the adoption of alternative sources to the unhealthy fat in safeguarding the health of Nigerians.
According to her, this has been done in collaboration with the Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED), Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), and Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI).
Professor Adeyeye said more than 36 million people die annually from NCDs globally, with cardiovascular diseases as the major cause of death, accounting for 17.5 million of these deaths annually.
She added that NCDs are estimated to account for about a quarter of total deaths in Nigeria annually, putting the probability of a Nigerian dying between ages 30 and 70 years from NCDs at 20 per cent.
Professor Adeyeye stated that following World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation, NAFDAC, with the cooperation, collaboration and support of the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Justice and the Trans-Fat Coalition Partners, have worked assiduously towards achieving the elimination of these unhealthy fat through two prong pathways.
The two-prong approaches, she declared, include the ban of partially hydrogenated oils that is the source of industrially produced TFAs, in all foods and setting limits on the amount of industrially produced TFAs to not more than two per cent of the total fat content in all Foods.
Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, in his remark, said with the regulations in place, stakeholders will be able to combat some risk factors of NCDs and he applauded NAFDAC for its resilience and dedication to safeguarding the health of the Nation through partnerships.