Lara Adejoro The National Agency for Food and Administration and Control has urged Nigerians to stop storing cooked food in the refrigerator for more than three days. The Director General NAFDAC, Prof Moji Adeyeye, while giving the warning, said cooked food stored in the refrigerator for days is susceptible to contamination by disease-causing pathogens, which are key agents of foodborne diseases that can lead to death. She made this known in a statement on Tuesday signed by the agency’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola.
The NAFDAC boss said this in commemoration of the 2024 World Food Safety Day with the theme, ‘ Food Safety: Prepare for the Unexpected’ in Lagos, urged stakeholders in the food supply chain to take deliberate actions to institute a food safety culture in their operations to mitigate food hazards and risks that could compromise food safety. The World Food Safety Day celebrated annually on June 7 was established by the United Nations General Assembly task force in 2018, to raise awareness and encourage efforts to prevent, detect and address public health risks linked to unsafe food. According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 600 million – almost one in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food, and 420,000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy lives.
WHO further said that $110bn is lost yearly in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low- and middle-income coun.
