K!ller foods in the market: How food vendors use nails, detergent, alum to pr£pare meals

Killer foods in the market: How food vendors use nails, detergent, alum to prepare meals

Experts warn against cancer, kidney, liver diseases

Recently, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) raised the alarm over the presence of poisonous food items in some markets across the country.

The food items include the ones forcefully ripened with harmful chemicals like banana, plantain, and other agricultural produce. Another category is the ones preserved with chemicals to avoid weevil infestation, especially grains.

Findings made across markets in Lagos show that some farmers, wholesalers, and retailers of these produce engage in the act to avoid post harvest losses.

Apart from farmers and farm produce sellers, food vendors have also been accused of cooking with harmful ingredients. A number of sachet spices that are found in the markets might not be too good for human consumption as they are only meant to give mouth-watering appeal without considering the health implications, according to experts.

Of all the allegations levelled against food processors, the commonest old tradition of cooking strong meat, according to Mrs. Iniobong Bassey, who runs a restaurant in the Akowonjo area of Lagos, is the use of metals such as spoon, nail, and iron fragments.

According to her, “When these are added to a boiling pot of meat, it helps to cook fast, as well as soften the meat. It has been alleged that some restaurants that cook large quantities of food mostly with the head and skin of the cow that are usually harder than other parts also make use of a handful of paracetamol tablets to soften these parts of meat.

It has also been revealed that liquid content of a certain brand of popular soft drink is often emptied into a large cooking pot of meat to achieve the same purpose, just as unripe paw-paw.

Interestingly, investigation carried out at a popular market in Ogun State also revealed that the popular cassava meal, also known as fufu that are served in homes, restaurants, and parties are mostly prepared with either detergents or alum for easy fermentation. How does it work?

A woman who craved anonymity said, “Ordinarily, cassava meant for fufu is supposed to be soaked for five days to reduce the amount of cyanide, which has been described by researchers as one of the harmful substances in cassava, to get the best fermentation, but when the illicit method is used, it ferments within two days with the cyanide intact. What is the process?

She said “When the cassava is peeled and washed, it is arranged in a big bowl, and a packet of 400mg detergent would be emptied and sprinkled all over the bowl and it covers it up. Natural fermenting looks foamy, so when detergent is added, one might not suspect because it will also have bubbles on top of the basin. Then, in just two days, the whole bowl of cassava would ferment, and the process of sieving, cooking, serving, and selling starts from there.

Again, she revealed that some people use alum, which is commonly used to wash slippery-edible items because it cleanses and gives the cassava the purest colour. Another source in the same popular market said, some people prefer to use detergent, while others use alum. “I buy the two, mix them up, cook and sell,” she told Saturday Sun.

The looming danger

Aside from that discovery that some people suffer diarrhea, vomiting and nausea after eating contaminated food in their homes, restaurant, and from food vendors or at parties because of the ingredients forcefully used to ripen fruits, preserve foods or added during preparation, experts say the consumption of these foods could also result in cancer, kidney disease, and other health challenges.

According to Olatundun Esther Kajihausa, a professor of Food Processing and Storage Technology, Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, there are so many unhealthy practices in the food value chains and among food handlers that have given rise to the increase in poisonous food items.

 

“Some of these practices include food adulteration, food contamination with pesticides, heavy metals, and other chemicals. Others include over-processing with high salt and sugar content in foods, poor, and unhealthy storage practices, especially with the use of dangerous chemicals induced/forced ripening processes.

“Ripening is a natural process in fruits that involves a series of irreversible physiological and biochemical activities leading to changes in physical appearance and chemical composition of the fruits which can increase in the rate of respiration of fruits and production of ethylene gas especially in climacteric fruits like bananas, tomatoes, mangoes etc.

“Artificial ripening agents are also used to simulate the natural phenomenon of ethylene passing over the fruits to hasten ripening using calcium carbide (CaC2). However, the use of industrial-grade CaC2 commonly used by fruit handlers frequently contains traces of impurities, such as calcium arsenide and calcium phosphide, which can interact with water They produce substances with potential health hazards.”

Prof. Kajihausa added: “Most farmers and food handlers engage in forced ripening process to control or hasten ripening process in order to meet market demand and supply, enhance uniform ripening and appearance and avoid postharvest losses and consequently to increase their profits while putting the life of consumers at risk.”

As a research fellow, she informed that consumption of these food items can have serious health implications either by acute food poisoning or long-term effects, which can be developmental, reproductive, neurological, or carcinogenic She therefore advised that “There is a need to ensure the safety and quality of our food supply, as well as to protect consumers from potential hazards associated with food consumption.

“The remedy to eradication of the use of these harmful chemicals and curb unhealthy food handling practices is to make a radical change throughout the food value chain involving all stakeholders (farmers, processors, distributors, marketers, regulatory bodies, government agencies and the consumers) in the food system because food safety business is everybody’s business.”

In the same vein, Christy Justin-Opara, Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, said that in using detergent to speed up fermentation and paracetamol to cook, the responsibility of the two items has been abused.

“When paracetamol is taken as a cooked tablet, it is no longer analgesic because heating it up would have given it another definition and interpretation just like using detergent to ferment cassava Its original purpose would have been stripped off. It therefore becomes toxic, and some of these consumptions are the major causes of liver failure. The fufu that is soaked with a corrosive detergent is no longer consumable food, but toxic consumption and all these are dangerous to the body.”

While the FCCPC and NAFDAC agree on the prevalence of these food items and the dangers they pose to human health, there has not been any penalty for those who engage in the acts.

Food and health experts believe that creating awareness on the risk associated with the use of harmful chemicals and unhealthy practices is a task that must be accomplished. They also insist on stricter regulations, enforcement, as well as promotion of traditional natural food processing methods that are safer and healthier. Farmers are also encouraged to implement better agricultural practices that can reduce the use of chemicals in crop production.