December 09, (THEWILL) – The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has seized 75 cartons of expired and unregistered tomato paste, worth over N2 million in Kaduna.
The seizure was made from 16 shops when the agency raided the Sheik Gumi market on Thursday.
The Deputy Director, Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC, Kaduna Office, Tamanuwa Andrew, said the raid was in line with the ban on importation of tomato paste by the Federal Government in 2019.
He said since the ban on the importation on the tin tomato paste, the Agency had carried out raids on unregistered and banned tomato paste across markets in the country.
Andrew said supermarkets and provision stores were still importing banned tomato paste through illegal ways, which he described as a setback to the economy and local manufacturers.
“In September 2022, in Lagos, the Director of Investigation and Enforcement held a press briefing on the raid carried out in the state alone, where supermarkets and shops were raided and over 3,000 cartons of unregistered tin tomatoes were confiscated”, he said.
“Since those unpatriotic Nigerians are not willing to stop smuggling those banned items, we are also not willing to stop going after them till we rid our markets of such products.
“In tomato paste, there is a substance called biphenyl, which is dangerous for human consumption. Accumulation of the substance in the body will result in cancer”, he said, adding that counterfeiters and smugglers flood the market with harmful products during festivities.”
