Healthy living: CSOs train journalists on Trans Fat Acids reporting

A civil society organisation (CSO), Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN), Wednesday held a training workshop for journalists in Abuja on the dangers of trans fatty acids (TFAs), which are naturally available in meat and dairy products or industrially produced in unsafe quantities by partially hydrogenating vegetable oils used in cooking or baked products and consumed by Nigerians on daily basis.

The training had in attendance Chief Lab Scientist Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC)- formerly Consumer Protection Council (CPC)-, Mrs Fatima Ojo, Executive Secretary Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), Mrs Eluaka Beatrice, Deputy Executive Director Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN), Akinbode Oluwafemi, Board Director Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED), Dr Jerome Mafeni, Director Public Affairs of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Abubakar Jimoh, among others.

Addressing participants at the event, Deputy Executive Director Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN), Akinbode Oluwafemi, said that keeping silent on the dangers of trans fatty acids (TFAs) is not an option as many avoidable diseases and possible deaths have been recorded in the last ten years because of the menace.

He said: “The #Transfatfree Nigeria Coalition put together this training to discuss a shared challenge. The coalition is made up of organisations like the ERA/FoEN, Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), Nigeria Heart Foundation and the Network for Health Equity and Development (NHED). We held the training to deepen media awareness on industrially-produced TFAs and its reportage.

“We want to galvanize pressure for approval of the Fats and Oils Regulation 2019 by NAFDAC. In the last decade, we have watched with consternation and loathed how the food industry inundated our shores with industrially-produced trans fats to the detriment of the health of citizens of this nation. Cases of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity and other illnesses, hitherto strange to our land, have suddenly become rampant among Nigerians.”

He added: “We already have enough challenges in public health. The tobacco industry is still on the prowl. The sugar industry is still on the prowl: we cannot add to the burden by closing our eyes to the fact that what we eat now causes us illnesses and death. In 2010, approximately 1,300 Nigerians died from causes attributable to high trans-fat intake. Unless legislation is put in place to checkmate the food industry’s love and use of industrially-produced trans fats, another major public health crisis is on the horizon.

“We want to commend NAFDAC for the Draft Fats and Oils Regulation 2019 and the Pre- Packaged Foods, Water and Ice Labeling Regulations 2019 currently on its website for public input till March 9, 2020. The issue of transfat is the story of a slow poison in our food chain. We can no longer fold our arms and watch our lives cut short by this deadly product. The government must wake up and act. The citizens also must act by rejecting foods with transfat.

“We demand for the federal government to declare an emergency in the food sector and commence massive awareness on the dangers of industrially-produced trans fats intake.

NAFDAC should reflect on the recommendations of civil society and other critical stakeholders in the draft Fats and Oils Regulation 2019 and the Pre- Packaged Foods, Water and Ice Labeling Regulations 2019 to ensure they are in sync with World Health Organisation (WHO) – recommended standards.”

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