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The Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED) and the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) have urged the Nigerian government to prioritise access to safe and nutritious food for all Nigerians, especially the poor and vulnerable that are hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
NHED and CAPPA also want the Governing Council of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to speedily approve the guidelines and regulations on the use of fats and oils, as well as pre-packaged foods, water and ice labeling which have strong provisions on trans fats.
The groups made the recommendations at a media briefing in Abuja to commemorate the World Food Day 2020, with the theme: Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together.
NHED’s Project Adviser for Trans Fatty Acids Elimination, Dr. Jerome Mafeni, explained that it was time for all Nigerians concerned about the growing incidences of people dying from coronary heart diseases and other ailments to get the message to political decision-makers and food makers to restrict and replace trans fats, and expand access to healthy foods.
Mafeni said beyond coronary heart diseases, trans fats have been linked to increases in the risk of diabetes, obesity, cancers, dementia and death, even as he added that estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that over 250, 000 persons die yearly resulting from complications associated with the consumption of foods high in trans fats.
He stressed that the role of dietary fats and oils in human nutrition is one of the most complex and controversial areas of investigations in nutrition science. Because of its complexity, the joint WHO/FAO Export Consultation on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Disease held in Geneva in 2002 recognized that the growing epidemic of chronic disease afflicting both developed and developing countries was related to dietary and lifestyle changes.
Earlier, CAPPA Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, explained that globally, attention is being paid to what people eat and that a country’s public health largely depends on what its citizens consume.
Oluwafemi, who was represented by CAPPA Director of Programmes, Philip Jakpor, referred to the 2018 WHO REPLACE initiative, which sets a roadmap for governments to remove trans-fat from food supplies as the path that Nigeria must follow if it is take leadership on the African continent in eliminating trans fats.
He said Nigeria, with a huge and vulnerable population must not take the back seat in the global war against trans fats, which he insisted, has become a bomb waiting to explode.
Jakpor stressed that there was therefore need for increased awareness on the dangers of consuming foods high in trans fats and urged the Nigerian government to compel the oils and fats and the fast-food industry to comply with global best practice in relation to trans fats in the processing of their products.
