The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has closed down manufacturing plants belonging to non-compliant food producers after comprehensive laboratory tests established that a portion of vegetable oil and salt brands available in Nigerian markets fell short of statutory micronutrient fortification requirements.
Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, Tunji Bello, made this known while releasing the results of a recent two-month market evaluation carried out alongside the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). The assessment highlighted critical lapses in adherence to national food fortification policies, sparking worries regarding public access to vital nutrients via daily dietary staples.
What were the key findings of the market survey?
The evaluation assessed 200 randomly gathered samples—consisting of 100 vegetable oil items and 100 salt commodities sourced from residential areas and traditional markets spanning both Northern and Southern Nigeria.
Laboratory evaluations indicated that 12 per cent of the vegetable oil items and two per cent of the salt commodities lacked adequate fortification with essential micronutrients at the consumer level.
Out of the 100 vegetable oil items examined, 49 lacked brand identification, whereas 51 were commercially branded goods.
The inquiry further exposed a low uptake of electronic tracking tools designed to monitor fortified commodities across the distribution chain. Merely six vegetable oil producers had enrolled on GAIN’s Digital Fortification Quality Traceability Plus system, with only three firms successfully uploading a cumulative total of eight product laboratory reports.
Why is food fortification important in Nigeria?
Bello explained that large-scale food enrichment is a compulsory public health strategy intended to combat micronutrient deficiencies by incorporating critical elements such as vitamin A, iron, folic acid, zinc, and iodine into mass-consumed foods.
"Consumers must be able to trust the quality of the products they buy and the health benefits those products are advertised to provide," Bello stated.
"Consumer protection goes beyond resolving everyday complaints or halting deceptive business practices. It fundamentally comes down to ensuring that citizens are not denied the essential value, safety and nutritional benefits they pay for in the marketplace."
What regulatory actions are being taken?
Bello noted that formal compliance orders have been transmitted to the defaulting producers, emphasizing that every production batch must strictly satisfy legally mandated quality and safety benchmarks.
He further mentioned that the outcome of the survey has been officially transferred to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to enable further regulatory enforcement in alignment with an existing cooperative agreement between both federal bodies.