Health alert: Market women turn to chemicals to keep vegetables, fruits fresh

BY ADA DIKE

The quest for wealth is luring many market women in Nigeria to turn to the artificial way of keeping their edible produce, especially fruits and vegetable fresh, not minding the health implications of their actions.

Saturday Times notes that this group of people ignores warnings and advice from concerned citizens, but is bent on killing people.

Last weekend, a middle aged man, Mr. Lazarus Ikhuria, said he bought fresh looking bunch of banana around Apongbon, Lagos, and had a serious reaction as if something was placed on the two sides of his livers.

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Ikhuria said he didn’t suspect anything until he bought another bunch of plantain in the same place and had the same feeling after eating it. He then decided to stop eating banana before someone informed him that some people use carbide to hasten fruits to ripe.

These days, it’s difficult for someone to buy fruits like mango, banana, and many others that riped naturally.

Recently a video surfaced online which showed how people use chemicals to wash green vegetables.

One Chibuike shared a video and said there’s a lot of wickedness in the world today as people use chemicals to wash the most common vegetables called ‘Efo’ in Yoruba language.

The video showed how two men dipped vegetables in a chemical and kept it as a sample in the market, the vegetables rose and became fresh. The one they dipped in a bowl of water didn’t become fresh.

According to Chibuike, consumers would be attracted by the freshness of the leaves. “So, they will buy it without knowing that it was washed with chemicals.

“This is why many people get many sickness and diseases these days such as diabetes, cancer and so on.

“Who will see this bunch of vegetables in the market without being tempted to buy it?”

He queried.

The two men after dipping the one they earlier dipped in a water into the chemical, it also became big and fresh.

Have you heard of how some people use chemicals to make ‘ponmo’ (hides and skin) thick and fresh, despite warnings from health experts about eating hide and skin?

Some of those thick ‘ponmo’ are enhanced to look enticing. But, the Chief Executive Officer of Treasure Foods, Abayomi Fadekemi, has given ponmo’ sellers tips on how to handle it in a topic she titled: “How to dehydrate ‘Ijebu ponmo’.

She advised ‘ponmo’ sellers to wash it thoroughly under running water because, “Health is Paramount.” Abayomi recommended dehydrator as the best equipment to dehydrate it.

Popular staple food, cassava meal called ‘fufu’ or ‘akpu’, is another food that some producers use chemicals to produce.

A woman has a small garden in their compound where she planted cassava. After harvesting the cassava, she peeled them, soaked them for four days before filtering them. Within three days after filtering them, she saw maggots in the cassava and wondered how people selling fufu in bags store them without any maggots in it. So, her neighbour told her that some of the sellers usually remove the maggots before preparing them. Also, another person told her that the chemical some of them use in fermenting cassava before filtering them stops maggots from entering processed cassava.

Saturday Times gathered that some people use chemicals like bleach, potash and detergent to ferment cassava and make it rise.

Recently, there was a report that someone saw a woman frying plantain chips and before she grated the plantain into the hot oil, she melted about five of the white polythene what people call ‘olonka rubber’ into the oil.

“Out of shock I asked why she had to melt that into the oil. She told me that it is done to harden the chips so it doesn’t break. Oh my God! I couldn’t believe my ears. She then went on to ask me if I have ever wondered why the ones they sell in traffic is always firm and hardly breaks,” the writer narrated.

Swiftly, the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), responded to the viral social media post alleging the frying of plantain chips using oil adulterated with polythene.

The Agency emphasised its commitment to a science-based approach and responsible regulation and promised to conduct necessary laboratory investigations to ascertain the validity of the claim.

The post, according to the agency, lacks details such as the observed date and geographical location.

NAFDAC urged the public to remain vigilant consumers of regulated food products.

“Consumers are advised to purchase from reputable sources, check for the NAFDAC Registration Number on the product label, be cautious of suspicious packaging, and avoid products with objectionable smells or colours.

“NAFDAC remains dedicated to its responsibility of ensuring the safety and quality of food products, and further updates on the investigation will be provided to the public,” the agency stated.

Bomine in bread is another danger towards achieving good health in Nigeria.

Dr. J. Bankston said: “Bromine is a chemical additive that bread companies use to make bread rise higher and take less time kneeding the dough for faster production. It also is a known carcinogenous halogen that blocks Iodine uptake in the thyroid which causes hypothyroidism.

“This causes hormone imbalance and disruption, often resulting in depression, heat and cold sensitivity, puffy face, fatigue, weight gain, carpal tunnel syndrome, low libido, and diminished pleasure. Goiters are common amongst people who exhibit extreme cases of this sometimes resulting in cancer nodules on or near the thyroid,” he explained.

He advised: “Get your levels checked today and look for non-bromated flours in your grocery stores and learn more about what foods harm your thyroid.”

Chibuike warned the public to always find out how foodstuffs they buy are processed before buying them.

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This causes hormone imbalance and disruption, often resulting in depression, heat and cold sensitivity, puffy face, fatigue, weight gain, carpal tunnel syndrome, low libido, and diminished pleasure.