Is your food safe? Over years, the attention of different levels of government in Nigeria has been on food security even though it has not been sufficiently achieved. Food security simply means making food available and accessible for the masses at affordable prices. Interestingly, in an attempt to solve the problem of food insecurity, most frozen food are imported into the country through our loose borders which are preserved with formalin and hence causing different cancer diseases as well as red colour, chemicals and starch added with small percentage of tomato called Tomato Paste from other countries.

Moreover,  some of the unethical practices in agricultural value chain in our dear nation include use of calcium carbide by fruit sellers in ripening of fruits, use of polyethene  bag in packaging agricultural produce which are not biodegradable and flow  into streams and rivers thereby killing aquatic animals; addition of  weeds to vegetables during packaging so as to earn more money; most of the abattoirs of beef and other livestock are filled with flies; rice dealers also change the package (re-bag) of rice; fruit juices are filled with different harmful chemicals as well as over use of agrochemicals on agricultural produce. All in the name of food security.

The question now is “if we are solving problem of food insecurity and hence open doors for different kinds of food to be imported and key actors of food supply value chain in Nigeria  are not trained on use of agrochemicals and processes involved in food processing which are harmful to Nigerians”, is food in Nigeria safe? Little or no attention is given to food safety which is defined as “Assurance that food will not cause any harm to the consumers when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended used”. As much as attention is given to agribusiness, much more should be given to food safety.

All the stakeholders in agribusiness have a lot of roles to play in making sure that sound ethical practice is achieved in Nigeria’s agricultural value chain which is “doing it right”. Individuals along food supply chain should cultivate the habit of doing the right things. That is, farmers should use approved agrochemicals according to manufacturers’ prescription to avoid presence of heavy metals in the food produced while processors should use proper facilities such as “stainless steel grinding machine” for grinding pepper among others. Meanwhile, government should also ensure that information needed by the key actors of agricultural value chain is disseminated at the right time, in a simple and clear form. Also all government agencies in charge of importation of goods should ensure that imported foods are certified and safe for consumption. Let us work together to produce quality and safe food so than our life span can increase in Nigeria. Eating safe food bring about good health and good health is great wealth.

Food safety is the watchword of Ogidiolu Farms which is an integrated Agribusiness of TRW Consult Holdings, positioned to become major processors and exporters of home grown farm produce with a vision to be one of the key players in the producing, processing and exporting food products in the agricultural sector in Nigeria and Africa.

Moses Agunbiade