NAFDAC debunks report of lacking testing lab for food fortification

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has debunked a news report alleging that it lacks a testing laboratory for food fortification.

Food fortification is the practice of adding vitamins and minerals to foods during processing to increase their nutritional value.

In a statement on Monday, Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general (DG), said the news report claimed that the assertion was made by the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) in collaboration with the Civil Society Legislative Advisory Centre (CSLAC) and eHealth.

“I wish to state unequivocally that NAFDAC has laboratories for analyses of micronutrients in food and has been conducting annual surveys on food fortification in Nigeria for the past years,” the statement reads.

“Particularly, the Central Food Laboratory has internationally accredited micronutrient laboratory units with state-of-the-art equipment.

“The laboratory has the Vitamins units for testing of vitamins in food which include Vitamin premix and fortified food vehicles.

“Vitamins tested include fat-soluble- Vitamin A; water-soluble – thiamine, riboflavin, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, cyanocobalamin, folate.

“This unit is equipped with the latest versions of Agilent and Chromaster brands of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).

“The Laboratory has the Metal unit equipped with the latest models of Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS).

“The metal unit analyses all the nutritional and heavy toxic metals in food including the fortification vehicles.”

Adeyeye said the units have well-trained staff that are technically equipped to handle the equipment in the analysis of micronutrients using internationally accepted protocols.

She added that the laboratory along with other NAFDAC laboratories in other parts of the country, handles over 10,000 samples of fortified foods in the 2023 food fortification survey.

“I wish to state here that NAFDAC do not and had never contracted the analyses of its micronutrients or any parameter of its regulated products to private laboratory since my assumption of office as the Director General,” she added.