In the wake of recent product safety scandals, the Center for Consumer Concern Initiative (CCCI) has renewed its call for stricter regulatory oversight of manufacturers.
Instructively, the CCCI was the first to raise the alarm, urging regulators to go beyond granting of pre-market approvals to carrying out checks after products hit the market.
Presenting a case study, CCCI said that it investigated 25 dairy creamers, all of which failed to comply with ingredient compositions.
“To our amazement, all the sampled products were short of the nutritional requirements certified for consumption of Nigerian consumers,” said Wale Adekola, Co-convener of CCCI.
Adekola is worried that the influx of varieties of competing fast moving consumer goods without thorough monitoring constitute a risk to consumers.
“It is more worrisome that some of them are expired products,” he said. He cited a recent publication by an investigative website, accusing the National Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of condoning manufacturers releasing expired products into the market.
“This is why the current focus on pre-market approvals is simply not enough. We need robust post-production monitoring mechanisms to ensure that products remain safe and compliant with regulations throughout their lifecycle.
“Consumers deserve the peace of mind knowing that the products they buy are safe and meet advertised standards,” Adekola emphasized. “Stricter post-production monitoring is essential to build trust and protect Nigerians from potentially harmful products and more particularly, reducing claimed nutritional content of these products. This is deception”
The CCCI, once again, urged NAFDAC and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to prioritize the development and implementation of robust post-market surveillance systems.
These systems, according to the CCCI, should include regular in-market product testing to ensure continued compliance with safety and quality standards; enhanced consumer reporting mechanisms; increased transparency and accountability including providing publicly available data on product recalls, investigations, and enforcement actions taken against manufacturers.
