The Executive Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has charged researchers and scholars in the University to embark on researches that would alleviate the challenges of food security and safety in the country.
Amosun, who gave this charge during the “Food Safety for Nutritionists and other Professionals” programme held at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta in partnership with the International Life Science Institute, University of Ghana, Legon (ILSI-UGL), noted that this year’s theme for the World Health Day, “From Farm to Fork”, highlighted the global concerns for food safety, amplified the emerging threat from food-borne diseases and showed that there was still the need for concerted efforts at stemming the menace of food-borne disease in the society.
The Governor, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ogun State Ministry of Health, Dr. Daisi Odeniyi, stated that there had been an increase in the upsurge of food-borne diseases due to the consumption of contaminated food items such as vegetables, beans, and other products, which could result in sudden death, because the basic principles of hygiene were not followed, while producing such food items.
Sen. Amosun noted that there was the need to educate people on the dangers of eating unwholesome food, adding that the State Ministry of Agriculture regularly inspects abattoirs to certify that they were fit for the processing of meat for human consumption.
According to him, residues and fruits were subjected to laboratory analysis, while the State Ministry of Health also got some brands of sachets of packed water, popularly called “pure water”, to undergo the same laboratory analysis.
From the results, it was found that a reasonable number of the things that were being consumed were not up to standard, hence the need to train and retrain sachet water producers, bakers, food vendors and others, to address unhygienic food processing procedures.
The Ogun State Governor congratulated FUNAAB for organising what he described as the timely and apt workshop, noting that the University was a hub of academic excellence, as he expressed his administration’s willingness to share from the reservoir of University’s research efforts.
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