NAFDAC gazettes regulations on fat, oil to safeguard Nigerians’ health

<p>The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has disclosed it has gazetted the reviewed Fats, Oil and Food containing Fats and Oil Regulation 2022 in a bid to safeguard the health of Nigerians.</p>, <p>The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, while disclosing this in a briefing in Lagos on Monday, said the agency also gazetted Pre-Packaged Food Labeling Regulation 2022.</p>, <p>Adeyeye said: “NAFDAC gazetted two regulations on fat and oil to determine the minimal amount allowable in foods to safeguard the health of Nigerians”</p>, <p>“We also have the labelling gazette that will show the quantity of milligrams of fat and oil in our food.”</p>, <p>She maintained that implementing the regulations would be strictly carried out to yield the expected result.</p>, <p>“The development was in line with the 2018 World Health Assembly in Geneva to eliminate industrially-produced Trans Fatty Acids (TFAs) from global food supplies to reduce Non-communicable Diseases(NCDs) globally.</p>, <p>“The emergence of these two reviewed regulations implies that the 2005 versions of these two regulations stand as repealed regulations without jeopardy from whatever was purportedly done.</p>, <p>“WHO has recommended one of these two policy pathways for implementation by banning the use of partially hydrogenated oils, that is, the source of industrially produced TFAs, in all foods.</p>, <p>“Setting limits on the amount of industrially produced TFAs not to be more than two per cent of the total fat content in all Foods.”</p>, <p>Quoting World Health Organization(WHO) statistics, Adeyeye noted that NCDs, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, are collectively responsible for 74 per cent of all deaths worldwide.</p>, <p>“In Nigeria, NCDs were estimated to account for about a quarter of total deaths, noting that the probability of dying between ages 30 & 70 years from the main NCDs is 20 percent.”</p>, <p>Adeyeye therefore said the agency in collaboration with