The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has assured Nigerians that Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) foods are safe for consumption as long as proper safety measures are followed.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, August 7, Adeyeye emphasized that GMO foods are not inherently dangerous. She noted that their safety largely depends on the type of food involved and the regulatory processes in place to monitor them.
In her words:
‘’GMOs are genetically modified foods and they are not bad for us. They are not, depending on what type of food they are and whether the safety considerations have been taken. The National Bio-safety Management Agency NBMA is the agency charged for ensuring safety of food that have GMOs. We work in collaboration with them. They are mandated to ensure that the food that have GMOs are of quality and safe.
When you look at foods in the grocery stores, you will see foods that are labelled organic, non-organic and people have the choice to buy the one they want. For NAFDAC, our goal is to ensure that the food that we approve for the market are safe, of good quality and are efficacious.
That is the reason why the collaboration between us and NBMA is very solid. Without them certifying that they have done their due diligence in their laboratory, we cannot approve. ‘’
Responding to concerns that a lot of GMO foods are now finding their way into the local markets and not only in grocery stores where items are labelled organic and non-organic, the NAFDAC boss said examination of food items in the markets is carried out by several agencies.
She argued that NAFDAC is not the only body empowered to carry out checks.
‘’We also have state controls over food so it is not that it is only NAFDAC that is the only agency that controls food from the common market. We have state controls. When we hear that something is going on somewhere, we step in.
It is not that NAFDAC has the mandate to go to all the markets and start sampling food.
For example, Palm Oil, if it is too red, they might have added dye to it and that one is mostly packaged, We normally go to such markets, take samples, test and then evacuate. We also do a lot of sensitization”
