The Federal Government yesterday warned Nigerians against intake of some poisonous food items, which it said arose from wrong habit of processing and preserving them.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Audu Ogbeh said this, yesterday at a one-day public hearing on food security bills organised by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
“Many of the cows being moved from one place to the other by herdsmen are already infected with tuberculosis but our practice of boiling meat very well here has been the saving grace for people not being infected with the deadly disease,” he said.
“Smuggled frozen chicken preserved with formalin, which is also used for preservation of dead bodies, have been potent poison being consumed by Nigerians with attendant serious health challenges in the land.”
The minister also cited the example of beans and grains preservation with too much pesticides by farmers and sellers as another dangerous food poison that had killed many Nigerians and still killing unsuspecting buyers and consumers. He noted that wrong application of fertiliser by farmers on their farmland has also led to poisonous consumption of food items.
“Unknowingly to many of the farmers, there is specific fertiliser for specific crops in specific state in line with soil texture,” he explained.
