The Benzoic controversy: When foreign is better

BY AJA NWACHUKWU

About two weeks ago, Nigerians woke up to the news that taking Fanta and Sprite with vitamin C is poisonous and so, should be avoided. My initial reaction to the news when I got it from a WhatsApp group was to dismiss it as one of those social media fake news, which is fast becoming a trend. Yet, as the day progressed, the internet became awash with the news. I soon realised it was not another hearsay and this made me pay even more attention to the news, especially, because it involved my favourite drink, Fanta.

Trust Nigerians in matters like this, it’s been one opinion too many with many consumer and human rights group calling for the head of NAFDAC and NBC. Once again, the public has given their verdict based on misleading information fueled by our famed ‘dem say’ mentality, without bothering to hear the other side of the story.

And to be fair, it’s really not the fault of many, considering that a lot of the times, the media dictates the turn of events based on its preferred narratives. Apparently, the way and manner in which the story was reported already put NBC and NAFDAC in a bad light as shoddy institutions that do not have the interest of the public at heart.

In all of this, many of us did not give thought to how we grew up on Fanta especially. Growing up, birthday parties were never complete without a tray of Cabin biscuits and Fanta. Interestingly too, till date I still have this amazing connection to the drink. So you can understand why I went ahead to read up on the genesis of the whole brouhaha, which was inspired by the Lagos high court judgement in the case filed by someone who attempted to export Fanta and Sprite to London in 2007 but the products were seized by the UK customs, on the grounds that they contain Benzoic acid at higher levels than the UK allows. Immediately, the Nigerian media and those on social media heard ‘barred in UK’ their antenna reached for ‘bad drink.’

On further reflections, however, my conclusion is that we have all jumped on a bandwagon without careful thought. For God sake, many of us drink Fanta so regularly, it is almost like water to us, so why didn’t we even query this? As for the many online media agencies, especially Sahara Reporters that broke the news, one wonders why no proper investigation or careful scrutinising of the court papers was done to examine the UK customs report in order to ascertain what exactly was said about Benzoic acid, the element on which the judgement was passed.

For instance, did the court really say it was “not fit for human consumption” as currently peddled in the news headlines? Emerging facts, as the court papers began to circulate in the public, reveal that we are being sold a lie, and exposing this lie and presenting the whole picture to the story before the public would have saved us from this unnecessary panic. Yes, I call it unnecessary because that is what it is. A careful look at the 23-page court ruling and laboratory analysis done in the UK show there was nowhere the UK agency described the consignment of Fanta and Sprite as unfit for human consumption.

A verbatim quote from a letter attached to the court ruling by the Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council Trading Standards Officer, Gareth Hollingworth, to the claimant reads “Fanta cannot be supplied or exposed to sale because it is not compliant with EU legislation.” The officer went on to say “I would recommend that any future import are subjected to analysis before you import a vast quantity to ensure that products are compliant with EU legislation. It appears that different countries have different limits for additives”. Now how is “non-compliant with EU legislation” same as “unfit for human consumption?”

It would interest Nigerians to know that the much talked about Benzoic Acid that is causing this whole “brouhaha”, has also the court backing which recognises it for what it is, a preservative. This explains why it ruled that the benzoic levels in Fanta and Sprite are compliant with relevant national regulatory and international standards and therefore dismissed all the claims against NBC because the company did not breach any law or food safety regulation. Again, the question is, if both drinks are compliant with Nigerian set standards, why then turn around to benchmark the UK benzoic level, when it is not the global gold standard?

For Nigeria, the permissible Benzoic acid level set for beverage products is 250mg/kg as against that of the UK which is 150mg/kg and this is because of the difference in climate. The UK as a temperate region requires lower preservative, unlike Nigeria which is a tropical region. Now both Fanta and Sprite have benzoic levels of 200mg/kg which is lower than the Nigerian set standard as well as that of CODEX which was 600mg/kg at the time.

It is no secret that we think ourselves inferior to our “colonial masters” and this explains why we would always choose their talents and products over ours. We are suffering from what Nigeria’s legendary musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti called, “Colonial Mentality”. This is the same thing playing out here; so because our own Fanta and Sprite manufactured here in line with the regulatory standard set for Nigeria did not conform to the UK benzoic level, then it is automatically bad for consumption, right? How convenient; yet we keep screaming about our sovereignty as an independent nation that should not be dictated to by other countries including our “colonial masters”.

Why are we like this as a people? Why can’t we be proud and defend our own? Or is this about the degradation of trust as a social currency which has eaten so deeply into our psyche that we are often excited to spread false and damaging information about things we know little about without careful interrogation? Perhaps, just maybe, it is the “forwarding syndrome” – a social media borne disease of impulsive or mindless spread of especially damaging and malicious information whose origin, motive or meaning we often cannot explain.

But as much as we want to be the harbinger of news, it is important that we know and have all the facts, so we don’t spread falsehood, injure the innocent and cause avoidable public anxiety and panic.

Unfortunately, it is this mindset – the default preference and adulation of anything foreign – that feeds the import dependency which has crippled our country’s economic development. From food products to footwears and underwears, the very basic items, it must be imported for the Nigerian to feel good and willing to flaunt an item. What shall we say about foreign education and foreign vacations and foreign wedding parties…? The latest angle of this national bad habit is that all our law, regulations and product standards must be reviewed to conform to the UK standards. Otherwise, they are “sub-standard”, “unsafe for humans”, “exploitative” and who knows what else. The sad irony is that even editorials of our leading dailies – which should reflect the epitome of intellect and critical analysis – are all drooling with this same mindset on the benzoic controversy.

Nwachukwu writes from Lagos