The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it has apprehended the merchants of dangerous chemicals used in food and drinks that killed three people in Kano.

The three died after consuming adulterated flavoured drinks.

The agency’s Director General, Mojisola Adeyeye, announced in a statement on Sunday.

The three people died in Kano in March after consuming flavoured drinks allegedly containing chemical additives.

The preliminary result of the agency’s investigation was submitted to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje during the NAFDAC boss’ two-day visit to assess the incident.

She said, “We are very particular about food additives, about the temperature at which food can be kept, or about the expiration date of food. If all of these are violated, then there can be food poisoning.

“Whether it is food or water, adding chemicals and other substances either to enhance the food or change its form can be dangerous, especially when we can’t verify the source and content of such additives.

“NAFDAC is now working assiduously in partnership with the Kano state government with a view to preventing reoccurrence of the March 11 incident.”

She noted that samples of the chemicals and additives used while preparing the flavoured drinks were tested in NAFDAC’s laboratory in Kaduna and

further testing conducted at the agency’s central laboratory in Lagos.

“We tested all the food samples, and there were E-Coli bacteria in some. One would wonder how E-Coli bacteria would get into powder. It depends on the storage.

“If it is stored in a very humid condition and expired, the packaging probably was getting compromised, you can get bacteria into dry powdered medium, but ordinarily it shouldn’t happen,” added the NAFDAC boss.

Prof Adeyeye explained that the agency’s pharmacovigilance directorate sent an alert to its 36 state offices to mount surveillance on unregistered products.

She noted, “NAFDAC does end-to-end monitoring for all chemicals and requests for distribution and utilisation patterns before giving importers permits to import chemicals.”

(NAN)