The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has denied reports of banning Indomie instant noodles and has assured consumers that the product is safe for consumption.
This comes following a statement by health officials in Malaysia and Taiwan, who had claimed to detect ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic substance responsible for lymphoid cancer and breast cancer in the product leading to a series of investigations of Indofoods, manufacturers of the product.
Despite this scare, the Director-General of the health agency, Mojisola Adeyeye, has asked consumers not to fret over the South-Asia countries’ preemptive measures.
According to Professor Adeyeye , “NAFDAC did not ban Indomie.”
“Indomie has been on the government prohibition list for many years to encourage local manufacturing.”
She also disclosed that the body has countermeasures to prevent the importation of these products from affected nations.
She said, “NAFDAC has registered several local manufacturers and the Indomie noodles have been safe.”
“Taiwan and Malaysian noodles have nothing to do with our local producers”.
Adeyeye however, stated that it was in no way “disregarding the reports but is responding to the news as a cautionary post-marketing monitoring measure to ensure that locally-made noodles stay safe.”
She also said NAFDAC, will begin random sampling of Indomie noodles, including the seasoning, from the production facilities to ascertain their safety levels for consumption.
