TheCable

The National Agency for Food And Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says the European Union (EU) rejected 24 exported food products from Nigeria in 2016.

Abubakar Jimoh, NAFDAC spokesperson, who made the disclosure in Abuja on Monday, said  the rejected products fell below standards.

According to Jimoh, who is also the NAFDAC director special duties, five major products illegally exported to the EU are groundnut, palm oil, sesame seed and beans.

He noted that from the information made available to NAFDAC, groundnut was rejected because it contained aflatoxin, which made the quality substandard.

“The exported palm oil did not scale through the EU’s test because it also contained a colouring agent that was carcinogenic,” Jimoh said.

“Beans was banned by EU some time ago but it was illegally exported to European countries.

“Beans was initially banned for one year when EU was not satisfied with our exported beans in terms of quality assurance, it extended the ban by another two years, which expires next year.

“NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies of the government are working round the clock to ensure that when the ban is lifted, we can then begin to export more agricultural products to EU.”

He said most of the products that were smuggled out were not certified by the agency and the Nigeria agricultural quarantine services at the ports.