Food Vendors Caught Using Nails, Detergent, And Alum To Prepare Meals
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 said.
