National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has shut down 10 substandard and unregistered bakeries as well as eight table water factories in Bonny Island in Bonny local government area of Rivers State.
During the operation, NAFDAC director, South-South Zone, Mr Chukwuma Oligbo, said the exercise was in line with the agency’s effort to ride the state of fake and unwholesome products.
Oligbo said: “The move became necessary following the agency’s painstaking investigations and surveillance and consumers’ complaints emanating from the Island concerning substandard bakeries and sachet and table water factories.
“It was discovered that some of the quack bakeries were producing in ramshackle facilities made with woods and rusty corrugated iron sheets with inappropriate baking equipment while the workers were not properly kitted.
“The bread was stored in a very unhygienic manner with flies perching on them. Some of the bakeries also bear the names of popular breads in Port Harcourt.
“Most of the bakeries were not registered by NAFDAC and unregistrable because they cannot meet the minimum requirement for registration, while few that were registered by the agency have expired licences or have relocated from their initial place of registration in Port Harcourt to Bonny Island without notifying the agency for formal documentation and mandatory inspections.”
He stated that some of the table water factories, which were mostly involved in the production of sachet water, were not using filtration equipment and other facility needed for the production of bottled and jar water. He said the producers were manually filling the jars with a locally improvised machine instead of an automated process, which is the acceptable standard recommended by NAFDAC.
The zonal director urged those who are in default of their product licence renewal to use the waiver magnanimously provided by the director-general of the agency from January to March and renew their licences, adding that NAFDAC is always ready to guide producers in doing the right thing.
Oligbo warned that hard times awaits those who intentionally flouts NAFDAC regulations.
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