Who Should Advance Stringent Food Standards? Nigeria or UK
Who Should Advance Stringent Food Standards? Nigeria or UK
"What differentiate a poison from a remedy is the right dose"
Following the court ruling in February 2017 in a suit by Fijabi Adebo Holdings Limited, urging the court to declare that NBC was negligent to its consumers by bottling Fanta and Sprite with excessive levels of benzoic acid, sunset additives while compelling NAFDAC to carry out routine laboratory tests on all the soft drinks and related products from NBC to ensure their safety for consumption, after the said firm suffered confiscation of exported Cocacola brands to UK which failed compliance to internal standards, therefore declared unfit for consumption.
Though Lagos High Court dismissed all claims against NBC and held that the company had not breached its duty of care to consumers and that there was no proven case of negligence while mandating NAFDAC to pay a sum of N2million to the plaintiff and to order NBC to declare vitamin C, not to be taken with affected brands on label due to formation of benzene.
This carcinogen could be introduced in food during processing or in process, e.g Phenylalanine; a component of aspartame vastly used in drinks is broken down by ionizing radiation to form this hydrocarbon.
Benzene is a common contaminant in the atmosphere. Its presence in air comes from both natural sources, such as forest fires and human activities, like cigarette smoking, burning of fossil fuels. Benzene is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Nonsmokers inhale about 200–450 μg of benzene daily, while smokers may inhale three times as much. Most of the human exposure to benzene occurs by inhalation but consumption of contaminated foods and water also play a role; use of contaminated water for preparing food, contaminated carbon dioxide during carbonation in production of soft drinks, use of contaminated raw materials and packaging materials, storage in contaminated areas. It may form in food by some cooking processes, thermal decomposition of food components, additives, food irradiation, and preservative decomposition.
Aforementioned activities of benzene formation are common occurrences observed and experience in Nigeria.
The U.K. maximum limit for benzoic acid in soft drinks is 150mg/kg. Both Fanta and Sprite have benzoic levels of 200mg/kg which is lower than the Nigerian regulatory limit of 250mg/kg and international limit set by CODEX.
What parameters govern different permissible limits for different countries?
Why are other brands exported from the same company, same manufacturer, not confiscated?
Does climate; temperate or tropic have any things to do with such standards? If you ask me, I will say capital NO according to codex guidelines on food additives. Besides, our climate favours benzene formation
Is there possibility to advance Nigerian food additives standards(benzoates) below 150mg/kg? Why not?
The guideline for simple evaluation of dietary exposure of food additive gives outright responsible to nations to set limit based on assessment methodology. What governs permissible limits for countries?
According to General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA), "food additives is justified only when such use has an advantage, does not present an appreciable health risk to consumers, does not mislead the consumer, and serves one or more technological functions. The quantity of a food additive added to food shall be limited to the lowest level necessary to achieve the intended technical effect , according to the basic principle of GMP.
Health risk analysis is a scientifically based process primarily evaluated by Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), who perform the risk assessments upon which Codex Committee on Food Additives and ultimately Codex base their risk management decision
Caption;
JECFA evaluates the safety of food additives and develop principles for safety assessment
Codex adopts JECFA opinions and make them international code in the form of GSFA and;
FCC: Food Chemical Code sets industry standards on the specifications of food additives ( U.S. Pharmacopoeia), and widely accepted in global regulatory practice
The evaluation gives way for the establishment of Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), the elaboration of their identity, purity criteria where relevant, and Estimated Daily Exposure with comparison to ADI to ascertain safety.
EDI > ADI = Poison
EDI < ADI = Safe
The ADI is an estimate of the amount of a food additive in food or beverages that can be ingested daily over a lifetime without appreciable health risk to the consumer. It is derived on the basis of all the known facts at the time of evaluation.
Risk is the likelihood that toxicity will be produced under the conditions of exposure.
Safety is the inverse of risk
Dietary Exposure Assessment
Regulators in different countries are allowed to fashion out what best suit them. Hence permissible limit is determine here.
Dietary exposure assessment combines food consumption data and the concentration of the food additive in food. The resulting dietary exposure estimate may then be compared with the ADI for the food additive, if available, as part of the risk characterization.
Three elements must be taken into account in assessing the dietary exposure of a food additive:
Concentration of the food additive in food
Amount of food consumed
Average body weight of the population (kg).
Dietary exposure = Σ (Concentration of food additive in food × Food consumption) / Body weight (kg)
There are different approaches for estimating the probable daily dietary exposure of food additives. The two method widely proposed are TMDI and EDI.
Estimated Daily Intake (EDI)
The EDI of a food additive is the amount of an additive ingested by the average consumer of the food.
Understanding “How much of the additive does Nigerian consume or will consume daily?”
Which of the foods in circulation use this additive?
What quantity is added in the target food?
Caption;
ADI is a fixed calculated value based on safety studies
EDI is based on nation's assessment and peculiarity of food additive using codex guideline
Concentration of Food Additive
Dietary exposure of food additive can be assessed;
Pre-regulation; Estimation gotten from the food manufacturer or processor.
Post-regulation; Maximum Limits in the GSFA.
Analytical data on the concentrations of the food additive in food may also estimate the levels the food additive likely to be found in the diet as consumed.
These data can also be derived from monitoring and surveillance data on food.
Food Consumption Data
Food consumption data reflects what individuals or groups consume in terms of solid foods, beverages (including drinking water), and food supplements containing the additive. Food consumption can be estimated through surveys at an individual, household level or approximated through national food balance sheet statistics.
Why Should Stringent Food Standards for Nigeria be Advanced?
Questionable Data Integrity
Though sodium benzoate concentration in food consumed daily and the quantities are filtered among populace to determine limits as stimulated in Codex guideline, it is imperative to be organic in determining food consumption data, especially from other sources of benzoates and sodium due to high uncertainty in data authenticity. Extending whistleblower to the Nigerian food industry would reveal a lot of discrepancies in data manipulation by food owners thereby watering down pre regulation
High Salt Intake and Benzene
Nigerian average salt intake should exceed 6000mg daily far above permissible limit. Local snacks beside solid foods are also seasoned with bleached sodium chloride (table salt); from roasted groundnut to corn.
Sources of sodium in food consumed daily are far numerous; sodium benzoates, baking soda, MSG, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, sodium propionate, sodium nitrate, let alone that of benzene
Corrupt Regulatory Officers
Regulatory health professionals are the least to be trusted in our clime due to repeated venal practices compare to their UK counterparts who are rated most trusted in event of food scare according to recent study done by NatCen. The danger of Vit C and benzoates flooded our media space as a result of UK personnels who are rated 40% compare to UK supermarket, food manufacture and even government who is rated 10% on trust level in respect to food scare
High Food Supply Chain Illiteracy
Nigerians think less of the food supply chain when making a purchase. They rarely take a near holistic perspective about their food. For instance, healthiness, processing level, etc. Healthiness and processing concern in this context as to do with food label and nutrition literacy, not manufacturers claims or NGO endorsement.
In UK, it matters “a great deal” or “quite a lot” that the food they buy is healthy (83%) and has not gone through a lot of processing matters a great deal or quite a lot to a substantial majority of people – around 7 in 10 while more than half feel very or quite sure that the labels on food are accurate (58%) and that they know where food comes from (54%) according to NatCen report
Insufficient Accredited Laboratories
Insufficient state of the art laboratories to evaluate food and drinks quality in the nation would always enhance the influx of food fraud. This was averred recently as one of Nigerian regulatory bodies said there is no enough labs to analyze food drinks in the country
Lack of Food Safety Bill
Poverty, which enhances patronage of unwholesome food and porous borders linkages use to ferry unsafe, untested and uncontrolled intake of food containing benzoates into the country.
The above obvious lapses more than affirmed the difficulty and vulnerability in identifying consumption data among others.
This inherently necessitate the need to raise our standards to proactively prevent dumping, reduce burden of health cost and enable players in the industries to be creative in the use of alternative additives rather than being stereotype, knowing benzoates is cost effective, best for preservatives and flavour enhancer in its category. There should be a review of additives permissible limit in food and drinks to safeguarding the nation while complementing it by passing food safety bill into law
Sources
Codex
NatCen; United Kingdom
International Journal of Food Science
"What differentiate a poison from a remedy is the right dose"
Following the court ruling in February 2017 in a suit by Fijabi Adebo Holdings Limited, urging the court to declare that NBC was negligent to its consumers by bottling Fanta and Sprite with excessive levels of benzoic acid, sunset additives while compelling NAFDAC to carry out routine laboratory tests on all the soft drinks and related products from NBC to ensure their safety for consumption, after the said firm suffered confiscation of exported Cocacola brands to UK which failed compliance to internal standards, therefore declared unfit for consumption.
Though Lagos High Court dismissed all claims against NBC and held that the company had not breached its duty of care to consumers and that there was no proven case of negligence while mandating NAFDAC to pay a sum of N2million to the plaintiff and to order NBC to declare vitamin C, not to be taken with affected brands on label due to formation of benzene.
This carcinogen could be introduced in food during processing or in process, e.g Phenylalanine; a component of aspartame vastly used in drinks is broken down by ionizing radiation to form this hydrocarbon.
Benzene is a common contaminant in the atmosphere. Its presence in air comes from both natural sources, such as forest fires and human activities, like cigarette smoking, burning of fossil fuels. Benzene is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a Group 1 human carcinogen. Nonsmokers inhale about 200–450 μg of benzene daily, while smokers may inhale three times as much. Most of the human exposure to benzene occurs by inhalation but consumption of contaminated foods and water also play a role; use of contaminated water for preparing food, contaminated carbon dioxide during carbonation in production of soft drinks, use of contaminated raw materials and packaging materials, storage in contaminated areas. It may form in food by some cooking processes, thermal decomposition of food components, additives, food irradiation, and preservative decomposition.
Aforementioned activities of benzene formation are common occurrences observed and experience in Nigeria.
The U.K. maximum limit for benzoic acid in soft drinks is 150mg/kg. Both Fanta and Sprite have benzoic levels of 200mg/kg which is lower than the Nigerian regulatory limit of 250mg/kg and international limit set by CODEX.
What parameters govern different permissible limits for different countries?
Why are other brands exported from the same company, same manufacturer, not confiscated?
Does climate; temperate or tropic have any things to do with such standards? If you ask me, I will say capital NO according to codex guidelines on food additives. Besides, our climate favours benzene formation
Is there possibility to advance Nigerian food additives standards(benzoates) below 150mg/kg? Why not?
The guideline for simple evaluation of dietary exposure of food additive gives outright responsible to nations to set limit based on assessment methodology. What governs permissible limits for countries?
According to General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA), "food additives is justified only when such use has an advantage, does not present an appreciable health risk to consumers, does not mislead the consumer, and serves one or more technological functions. The quantity of a food additive added to food shall be limited to the lowest level necessary to achieve the intended technical effect , according to the basic principle of GMP.
Health risk analysis is a scientifically based process primarily evaluated by Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), who perform the risk assessments upon which Codex Committee on Food Additives and ultimately Codex base their risk management decision
Caption;
JECFA evaluates the safety of food additives and develop principles for safety assessment
Codex adopts JECFA opinions and make them international code in the form of GSFA and;
FCC: Food Chemical Code sets industry standards on the specifications of food additives ( U.S. Pharmacopoeia), and widely accepted in global regulatory practice
The evaluation gives way for the establishment of Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), the elaboration of their identity, purity criteria where relevant, and Estimated Daily Exposure with comparison to ADI to ascertain safety.
EDI > ADI = Poison
EDI < ADI = Safe
The ADI is an estimate of the amount of a food additive in food or beverages that can be ingested daily over a lifetime without appreciable health risk to the consumer. It is derived on the basis of all the known facts at the time of evaluation.
Risk is the likelihood that toxicity will be produced under the conditions of exposure.
Safety is the inverse of risk
Dietary Exposure Assessment
Regulators in different countries are allowed to fashion out what best suit them. Hence permissible limit is determine here.
Dietary exposure assessment combines food consumption data and the concentration of the food additive in food. The resulting dietary exposure estimate may then be compared with the ADI for the food additive, if available, as part of the risk characterization.
Three elements must be taken into account in assessing the dietary exposure of a food additive:
Concentration of the food additive in food
Amount of food consumed
Average body weight of the population (kg).
Dietary exposure = Σ (Concentration of food additive in food × Food consumption) / Body weight (kg)
There are different approaches for estimating the probable daily dietary exposure of food additives. The two method widely proposed are TMDI and EDI.
Estimated Daily Intake (EDI)
The EDI of a food additive is the amount of an additive ingested by the average consumer of the food.
Understanding “How much of the additive does Nigerian consume or will consume daily?”
Which of the foods in circulation use this additive?
What quantity is added in the target food?
Caption;
ADI is a fixed calculated value based on safety studies
EDI is based on nation's assessment and peculiarity of food additive using codex guideline
Concentration of Food Additive
Dietary exposure of food additive can be assessed;
Pre-regulation; Estimation gotten from the food manufacturer or processor.
Post-regulation; Maximum Limits in the GSFA.
Analytical data on the concentrations of the food additive in food may also estimate the levels the food additive likely to be found in the diet as consumed.
These data can also be derived from monitoring and surveillance data on food.
Food Consumption Data
Food consumption data reflects what individuals or groups consume in terms of solid foods, beverages (including drinking water), and food supplements containing the additive. Food consumption can be estimated through surveys at an individual, household level or approximated through national food balance sheet statistics.
Why Should Stringent Food Standards for Nigeria be Advanced?
Questionable Data Integrity
Though sodium benzoate concentration in food consumed daily and the quantities are filtered among populace to determine limits as stimulated in Codex guideline, it is imperative to be organic in determining food consumption data, especially from other sources of benzoates and sodium due to high uncertainty in data authenticity. Extending whistleblower to the Nigerian food industry would reveal a lot of discrepancies in data manipulation by food owners thereby watering down pre regulation
High Salt Intake and Benzene
Nigerian average salt intake should exceed 6000mg daily far above permissible limit. Local snacks beside solid foods are also seasoned with bleached sodium chloride (table salt); from roasted groundnut to corn.
Sources of sodium in food consumed daily are far numerous; sodium benzoates, baking soda, MSG, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, sodium propionate, sodium nitrate, let alone that of benzene
Corrupt Regulatory Officers
Regulatory health professionals are the least to be trusted in our clime due to repeated venal practices compare to their UK counterparts who are rated most trusted in event of food scare according to recent study done by NatCen. The danger of Vit C and benzoates flooded our media space as a result of UK personnels who are rated 40% compare to UK supermarket, food manufacture and even government who is rated 10% on trust level in respect to food scare
High Food Supply Chain Illiteracy
Nigerians think less of the food supply chain when making a purchase. They rarely take a near holistic perspective about their food. For instance, healthiness, processing level, etc. Healthiness and processing concern in this context as to do with food label and nutrition literacy, not manufacturers claims or NGO endorsement.
In UK, it matters “a great deal” or “quite a lot” that the food they buy is healthy (83%) and has not gone through a lot of processing matters a great deal or quite a lot to a substantial majority of people – around 7 in 10 while more than half feel very or quite sure that the labels on food are accurate (58%) and that they know where food comes from (54%) according to NatCen report
Insufficient Accredited Laboratories
Insufficient state of the art laboratories to evaluate food and drinks quality in the nation would always enhance the influx of food fraud. This was averred recently as one of Nigerian regulatory bodies said there is no enough labs to analyze food drinks in the country
Lack of Food Safety Bill
Poverty, which enhances patronage of unwholesome food and porous borders linkages use to ferry unsafe, untested and uncontrolled intake of food containing benzoates into the country.
The above obvious lapses more than affirmed the difficulty and vulnerability in identifying consumption data among others.
This inherently necessitate the need to raise our standards to proactively prevent dumping, reduce burden of health cost and enable players in the industries to be creative in the use of alternative additives rather than being stereotype, knowing benzoates is cost effective, best for preservatives and flavour enhancer in its category. There should be a review of additives permissible limit in food and drinks to safeguarding the nation while complementing it by passing food safety bill into law
Sources
Codex
NatCen; United Kingdom
International Journal of Food Science
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