food poisoning killed 200,000 Nigerians annually - Report

[Nairaland]

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The revelation at the gender and inclusion summit 2023 (GS-23), held recently in Abuja, that over 200,000 Nigerians die annually from food poisoning is troubling, stakeholders say.

Speaking at the event convened by the Policy Innovation Centre, PIC, of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group in Abuja, Apostle Michael Orokpo’s wife and social media influencer, Osenega Orokpo, shocked many when she revealed that there is high rate of food poisoning in Nigeria and other African countries due to unhealthy.

She attributed this to unsafe food preparation and preservation caused by poor processing and absence of robust and monitoring food systems in the country.


Stakeholders at the summit said many Nigerians were dying owing to unsafe and unscrupulous practices, such as the use of dangerous chemicals like sniper for storage and preservation of agricultural commodities, including grains (maize, beans).

They also identified other harmful practices to include the use of carbide to ripen fruits, tendering of meat with paracetamol by food vendors, which can result in liver or kidney failure, using formaldehyde to preserve fish, injecting poultry with hormones to conceal disease, harmful food colouring, among others.

Orokpo, who spoke on the topic: “Pathway out of Poverty: Closing Systematic Gender Gaps in Agricultural Productivity, Value Chain Pathways, and Entrepreneurial Opportunities,” stressed the need for resilient food systems to address the challenge of food poisoning in the country.

She added that Nigeria could address the challenge of food poisoning through such proactive interventions like advocacy.

She suggested that every food supply chain should have safety cautions in place to guard against food poisoning along the distribution channel, even as she underscored the need for women inclusion in the food value chain, as according to her, about 47 percent of farmers in the food chain were women.