By Chioma Obinna
The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Professor Christianah Adeyeye on Monday said the agency does not and had never contracted the analyses of its micronutrients or any parameter of its regulated products to private laboratory since she assumed office.
Stating that the Central Food Laboratory, particularly, has internationally accredited micronutrient laboratory units with state-of-the-art equipment, Adeyeye dismissed media reports that it has contracted these units to private laboratories.
She said: “I wish to state unequivocally that NAFDAC has laboratories for analyses of micronutrients in food and has been conducting annual surveys on food fortification in Nigeria for the past years.
“The laboratory has the Vitamins units for testing of vitamins in food which include Vitamin premix and fortified food vehicles. Vitamins tested include fat-soluble- Vitamin A; water-soluble – thiamine, riboflavin, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, cyanocobalamin, and folate. This unit is equipped with the latest versions of Agilent and Chromaster brands of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).
“The Laboratory has the Metal unit equipped with the latest models of Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES), Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). The metal unit analyses all the nutritional and heavy toxic metals in food including the fortification vehicles.
“These units have well-trained staff that are technically equipped to handle these equipment in the analyses of micronutrients using internationally accepted protocols. The test scopes of these units have been accredited by the American National Accreditation Board (ANAB) since 2018 and this has been sustained and renewed annually. This fact can be verified from the ANAB website.”
Continuing, she explained that the laboratory along with other NAFDAC laboratories in other parts of the country handled over 10,000 samples of fortified food in the 2023 Food fortification survey.
“The result of these samples was presented to the National Fortification Alliance (NFA). The NFA consist of representatives of the industries – Flourmills, Sugar processing, Vegetable oil, etc., government and regulatory agencies, and donor partners.
“I wish to state here that NAFDAC do not and had never contracted the analyses of its micronutrients or any parameter of its regulated products to private laboratory since my assumption of office as the Director General,” she stated
Source: Vanguard
