Mrs. Nkeiruka Okoye, who has never patronised the local grinding machines, said as she was preparing for her 10- year- old son’s birthday her blending machine packed up and she had no option but to rush to the nearest market to find a way of grinding her food products.
According to her, she had bought a medium-sized basket of red ‘tomato Jos’, bell pepper [tatashi], scotch bonnet pepper, etcetera. On getting to the Ipodo Market, Ikeja, Lagos, which was the closest to her house, she got directions to one of the commercial grinders.
“Already two people were before me, so I patiently waited for my turn”. Narrating her experience, as the operator started grinding for her, initially everything was coming out clear and fine, but all of a sudden “I saw a line of black liquid trickling into what he was grinding for me”. Alarmed, I shouted at him to switch off the grinder. Looking up, he asked me why. I pointed my finger at the black liquid, asking him what it was, and he nonchalantly said it was nothing to worry about and made me restart the engine”.
Furious at his nonchalant attitude, I asked him to stop grinding if he would not stop the liquid from mixing with my tomatoes, and he called me a troublemaker, saying that no customer had ever complained about that liquid except me.
All over Nigeria, consumers patronise these commercial grinders. They grind both dry food products like corn, as well as fresh foods. Grinding shops operate in markets, on street corners, behind houses, and sometimes inside cramped kiosks covered with dust and smoke.
The majority of consumers patronise them because they do not have blenders at home, and even if they do, they do not have industrial ones that can grind large quantities of food products. Some other consumers patronise them because of the unreliability of electricity.
However, the unfortunate aspect of this whole issue is that metals have been mixing into the food products that pass through these machines. Metals like zinc and iron, when consumed consistently, can result in serious health issues.
A clinical toxicologist who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the press, said chronic exposure to heavy metals through food is a “real but underestimated” driver of kidney disease. “Nigeria has a rising crisis of chronic kidney disease. The public tends to blame high blood pressure and diabetes, which are indeed causes, but environmental and dietary exposure to toxic metals is the elephant in the room,” he said. “Metals do not leave the body quickly. If you ingest small amounts every day from flours, pepper, beans or groundnuts processed by unsafe machines, the cumulative dose over the years becomes dangerous.”
Public health experts warn that chronic, long-term exposure to small quantities of toxic metals can silently impair kidney function. Kidney damage usually progresses without symptoms until it becomes advanced. By the time fatigue, swelling, or reduced urination appear, kidney function may already be severely compromised. Nigeria currently spends billions of naira on dialysis and kidney transplants each year, with demand rising sharply
The toxicologist at a Teaching Hospital explained the biological mechanism: “Lead and cadmium accumulate in kidney tissues. They damage the tubules responsible for filtering waste. Over the years, this has led to chronic kidney disease. Even low-level daily exposure from contaminated food adds up.”
Unfortunately, the problem is not just the grinding machine but the complete absence of regulatory supervision. Nigeria’s food-safety laws theoretically cover the production, processing, and handling of foods, but in practice, the grinding industry is almost entirely informal. Many run without registration, without licenses, and without inspections.
A senior official at the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), who pleaded anonymity, admitted that enforcement in this sector is “almost nonexistent.”
He explained that SON’s mandate covers materials and equipment, while NAFDAC oversees food safety. “But the grinding machine business is too fragmented,” he said. “Ninety per cent of operators are informal. We cannot inspect thousands of small shops scattered nationwide.”
A NAFDAC official in the Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate noted that the agency focuses on packaged, commercial food producers. “People grinding pepper in a market are outside formal regulation,” she said. “Technically, they should operate under sanitary regulations, but enforcement is difficult. The agency simply does not have the manpower.
The worries about these grinding machines are the kind of metal they are composed of. The metal composition of such improvised discs is inconsistent and often unsafe. Welded joints break easily. Rust is common. Some discs are made from recycled vehicle parts.
Investigations revealed that in one workshop, a mechanic proudly displayed a grinder disc he fashioned from discarded brake drums.
Experts warn that these improvised parts introduce unpredictable metal contamination. “When you do not know the alloy composition of the metal, you cannot predict the level of lead or chromium that might leach into food.
Experts insist the technology itself is not the problem; the danger lies in the lack of maintenance and the use of substandard parts. Proper stainless-steel grinding discs, properly maintained and regularly replaced, can minimise contamination. But most small-scale operators cannot afford them.
Further findings also revealed that a stainless-steel disc can cost ₦40,000 to ₦60,000 while a fabricated one is ₦6,000.
Regulators agree that change will require a coordinated effort — public enlightenment, machine-operator training, enforcement of basic standards, and affordable access to safe equipment.
Most of the operators of these machines do not know the health implications of the metals that leach into food. Their concern is to grind smoothly and collect their money. The majority of consumers are also ignorant of the health risks.
A dependable solution, according to food-safety specialists, would involve subsidising safe grinder parts, training operators on maintenance, and conducting regular, random market inspections. Without such measures, millions of Nigerians will continue consuming small but dangerous doses of metal daily.
In the absence of regulation, metal ingestion through grinding machines remains an invisible national health threat — one that touches nearly every home, every kitchen, and every meal.
It is a crisis hidden in plain sight, waiting for attention, waiting for accountability, and silently accumulating in the bodies of millions.
Consumers, please let’s be more conscious of what we ingest into our bodies.
