Investigation of Indomie noodles begins today

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) will today begin investigating Indomie noodles for harmful chemicals.

The random sampling of Indomie noodles follows the suspected presence of Ethylene oxide, a chemical linked to lymphoma and leukemia, in the seasoning packets of the Indomie chicken special variant in Taiwan and Malaysia.

A statement by the NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said: “NAFDAC started investigating and responding immediately to the news of recalled Indomie noodles by Taiwan and Malaysia authorities. Tomorrow (today), the Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate will randomly sample Indomie noodles (including the seasoning) from the production facilities, while the Post-Marketing Surveillance Directorate samples from the markets.

“The compound of interest is ethylene oxide, so the Director, Food Lab Services Directorate has been engaged. He is working on the methodology for the analysis.

“It should be noted that Indomie noodles has been banned from being imported into the country for many years. It is one of the foods on the government prohibition list. It is not allowed in Nigeria, and therefore not registered by NAFDAC.

“What we are doing is taking extra caution to ensure the product is not smuggled in and, if so, our post-marketing surveillance would detect it. We also want to be sure the spices used for Indomie and other noodles in Nigeria are tested.

“That is what NAFDAC Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN) and Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) are doing this week at the production facilities and in the market.”