Since the past two weeks, the media has been awash with the National Agency for Food Drug and Administration Control’s (NAFDAC) threat to begin the enforcement of the ban on imported frozen poultry as a study showed that imported turkey and chicken are unfit for consumption due to the presence of potentially toxic metals, high formalin levels and the antibacterial residues in the meat.
At a press conference/presentation of the study on ‘Prevalence, Quality and Acceptability of Frozen Poultry meat in major cities in Nigeria’, on the 15th of June, the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, threatened to deal ruthlessly with smugglers and dealers found with the banned products.
According to a study conducted by Prof. Olumide Tewe, a nutritional toxicologist, University of Ibadan, and his colleagues, high levels of toxic metals, food-borne diseases and formalin were discovered in the meat.
Prof. Tewe, who led the research team, said that the sample for the study of imported frozen poultry carcasses were obtained from wholesalers and retailers in Lagos, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt and Abuja and analysed for heavy metals, microbial status and meat quality parameters.
The nutritional toxicologist said the analysed smuggled or imported poultry food were found to be unsafe for consumption, warning that the continuous consumption of imported chicken and turkey could damage the human system on the long run, unlike locally produced poultry which have been found to be safe for consumption.
The NAFDAC DG, who warned that imported poultry products will no longer be tolerated, said that NAFDAC is going to work closely with the Nigerian Customs to enforce the ban on imported poultry.
“NAFDAC is concerned with the antibacterial residues in these poultry. When we talk of drug resistance, we should also look at the animals we eat. They are injected with antibiotics and when people keep eating it, they may develop resistance to these antibiotics.”
Explaining, Dr. Adekunbi Omotoso of the Department of Animal Science, University of Ibadan, who researched on the antibiotic residues in imported frozen poultry, regretted that the study they carried, revealed high levels of ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin and fluoroquinolones in imported frozen poultry as against the levels detected in locally-processed poultry.
“Levels of ciprofloxacin detected were above acceptable limits. For instance, the European Union maximum residue limit for the sum of ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin in poultry tissue is 100 microgram per kg but we discovered levels above 1000 which is dangerous to human health,” noted the eloquent Omotoso.
Explaining the microbial load as revealed by the study, one of the researchers, Prof. C. I. Alarima, said the study showed that imported poultry meat, particularly chicken and turkey are loaded with the microbes. These are bacteria that cannot be seen with the ordinary eyes.
The president of the Association of Poultry in Nigeria, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, has also said that the country loses about N399.4bn annually to poultry smuggling.
He stated this while speaking during the 2015 Nigerian Poultry Summit, adding that smuggling of frozen chicken into Nigeria was a major challenge facing the sector.
However, the pertinent question that should be asked is: Why has the illegal smuggling of poultry prevailed amidst previous warning?
Local production of chicken is said to fall short of the demand for the product, thereby creating an avenue for smuggling.
According to the president of the Poultry Association, while the local demand for frozen chicken is above two million metric tons annually, Nigerian farmers are only able to produce 300,000 metric tons leaving a wide gap of more than 1.7million metric tons.
“Out of this figure smuggled chicken accounts for 1.2million metric tons annually,” noted Dr. Oduntan.
In an interview with consumers, almost all of them voiced their preference to locally grown free range and semi free range poultry, which they said is more tasty and succulent but unfortunately beyond the reach of the masses.
“An average fowl which perhaps weighs 1kg when slaughtered and dressed cost N2,500 and an average live turkey too will not cost less than N5,000,”said Mrs. Nkechi OKoli, adding that with N2,500 she can buy three kilos of frozen imported chicken while N5,000 can get me more than five kilos of imported turkey meat.”
Another issue that may look insignificant but is actually of paramount importance, is the preference of most Nigerians for hard chicken meat. This they cannot easily source from poultry farmers and processors here but from the imported poultry and live poultry.
A majority of poultry farmers and processors deal with broilers which mature between 3-4months, resulting in very soft meat. This is the kind of chicken meat served in most fast food eateries. Broilers encourage quick turn over and less money is spent on feeding and caring for them as they are slaughtered within a very short time. But consumers prefer chicken meat from old layers, cockerels.
Then the issue of the Nigerian customs. If government is going to achieve its desire of the ban on poultry importation and smuggling, then the Customs must sit up and face their responsibilities.
Nigeria with a population of about 165million is grossly underprovided with the essential food component which is protein. For example, data from the Federal Office of Statistics[FOS], Central Bank Nigeria[CBN], and Food and Agricultural Organisation[FAO] indicate that from cattle, less than 2kg of beef is available to an average Nigerian per year and just a mere 4kg of eggs per annum is available to each Nigerian.
More investment is required in the farming and processing of poultry in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for frozen poultry and achieve the desire of government that placed a ban on the importation of frozen poultry in Nigeria.