The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a new directive to food and drug manufacturing companies.
The agency said going forward it would no longer renew the licences of food and drugs manufacturing companies if they do not have a Post Marketing Surveillance.
NAFDAC said the move was to reject poorly destroyed expired or stolen products being sneaked into the market through scavengers at waste dump sites to endanger the lives of innocent consumers, particularly children.
The Director-General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, during the agency’s Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate Stakeholders’ engagement with food sector operators in Lagos, also warned food companies to guard against poorly incinerated cereals that sometimes sneak into the market as unbranded products, thus posing dangers to consumers’ health.
The NAFDAC boss, in a statement issued by the NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, pointed out that manufacturers of food products should always be more concerned about their products in the market by establishing Post Market Surveillance Unit in their companies.
She recalled that many years ago, the agency had made Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) mandatory for companies, but compliance has been poor.
Adeyeye stated that “if a product doesn’t have a NAFDAC number, such a product can’t guarantee the safety.”
“Henceforth, if a company doesn’t have Post Marketing Surveillance or Post Marketing Pharmacovigilance (for drug manufacturing companies) department, the product will not be renewed.”
“We have asked companies to establish a PMS department where people are sent out to the market to see what’s happening to their products out there.”
“Once you get an inkling of somebody adulterating your product, you call us because you don’t have the power to go with the police. We have the power to go and raid.”
“That’s why we need the collaboration because we must change our industrial practice. That’s how to get the best out of your trade. Once you tell us, I assure you that we will be there in hours in terms of mopping it up and getting the suspect arrested and prosecuted.”
