The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed a Chinese supermarket at Azba Mall, 2 Durban Street, Wuse 2, Abuja, for selling goods labeled exclusively in Chinese without the required notifications in English.
Shaba Mohammed, NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, confirmed the closure on Monday, explaining that the agency acted after receiving credible information regarding the supermarket’s non-compliance with labeling regulations.
Mohammed, who also chairs the Federal Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs, and Unwholesome Processed Foods, stated that most of the goods in the supermarket were labeled in Chinese, which violates NAFDAC’s guidelines for product labeling.
He further disclosed that some of the items were expired but were still being sold to consumers.
NAFDAC has initiated an investigation to determine how these products entered the country and why such widespread violations occurred.
Mohammed assured the public that the agency would continue its efforts to protect consumers from unwholesome and unsafe products in the marketplace.
Quoting Mohammed, “The supermarket was sealed for violating NAFDAC regulations, investigation will surely go on about this supermarket, and we will also need to go to its warehouse in order to stop them from selling some products.
“The whole information about this supermarket just go to us, if we had known the information from the beginning, we would have taken regulatory action we just took against it now.
“Selling items in foreign language in a country is a violation of our law; if you must sell anything either in Arabic, Chinese and French, you must have English translation of it.
“More than 90 per cent of the goods sold in the supermarket are in Chinese language. You might find some Nigerians patronizing the supermarket; they should be able to read about some of the items on the shelves.
“Some of these items have also expired. Even if they are giving global listing to import, they ought to be in English language. This supermarket cannot present to NAFDAC a document through which the items were approved in foreign language.
“This is not acceptable and that is why we have to seal the supermarket, we will invite the owner for further investigation before we can conclude on the case.”
The Director further asserted that the supermarket might have bypassed NAFDAC in the process of bringing some of the goods into the country. Adding that if the supermarket is found culpable of violating NAFDAC regulations, punishable action would be taken against it.
“It is not every case we charge to court; we will take regulatory action against the supermarket, which may be an administrative action. Before any certification is given by NAFDAC, it would have visited the site/shop for goods storage and distribution practice.
“NAFDAC, upon its visit, will ensure that the facilities are in accordance with NAFDAC regulations,” he asserted. The agency will not see all these items at the port with every description in foreign language and allow them in; they would have been intercepted immediately,” he added.
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