On World Food Safety Day 2025, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on governments at all levels to implement policies that promote healthy, indigenous diets and discourage the widespread availability and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UFPs), which are linked to Nigeria’s rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden.
CAPPA, in a statement, warned that UPFs – often excessively high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats, and low in essential nutrients – and other junk foods including sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), are gradually replacing nutritious traditional diets at a great cost to food safety, security and public health.
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The nongovernmental organisation (NGO) canvassed the adoption of policies such as Front-of-Pack Warning Labelling (FOPWL), regulations for enforcing sodium targets in processed and packaged foods, an effective SSB tax, and the development of a Nutrient Profile Model (NPM), among others, to combat the rising burden of diet-related NCDs.
“Ultra-processed foods are a threat to Nigeria’s food safety, security and sovereignty,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, CAPPA’s Executive Director. “Policies that restrict their consumption, especially their availability on children’s diets, are a proactive approach to promoting better health and well-being.”
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The statement lamented that UFPs, including noodles and sugary drinks, had not only become the most widely available products to millions of Nigeria’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) or others facing humanitarian crises, but also the food of choice in many homes and schools nationwide.
“This gradual normalising of junk food comes at a great price: before our eyes, some of our nutritious indigenous foods that kept us healthy and shielded us from what used to be considered ‘foreign diseases’ like cancer, are dropping off our menus because many of the food crops used to prepare them are at risk of extinction or decline due to factors including our preference for exotic junk foods and drinks,” said Oluwafemi.
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Last year, a report published by Biodiversity Education and Resource Centre in collaboration with Heinrich Boll Stiftung Nigeria cited traditional fruits like tropical almond and black velvet tamarind, vegetables like oha leaf, and legumes like African yam bean and bambara groundnut, among the endangered list.
Worse yet, CAPPA’s recent report from an investigation in seven states, titled Junk on Our Plates, found that food and beverage companies are aggressively marketing unhealthy foods mostly to children and young adults, often falsely labelling them as “nutritious” or “natural.”
Oluwafemi warned that this dangerous, greed-fuelled practice, coupled with poor regulations, the lack of FOPWL, and an ineffective SSB tax, take away Nigerians’ right and ability to make informed food choices, thereby worsening their susceptibility to preventable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular conditions.
“Front-of-Pack Warning Labels provide clear, easily understandable information about the nutritional content of packaged foods,” he said. “In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) has long endorsed it as one of the most cost-effective tools for preventing diet-related NCDs.
“Furthermore, there is clear evidence that an SSB tax of at least N130 per litre, rather than the current N10 per litre, is an effective tool for tackling rising levels of obesity and SSB-related NCDs, while also providing funds for strengthening public health.
CAPPA argued that combining these with other similar measures is critical to food safety and Nigerians’ well-being.
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“The World Food Safety Day 2025 with its theme ‘Food Safety: Science in Action’, reminds us that food not only plays a vital role in reducing disease and saving lives but is also a question of equity and social justice.
“Being so closely linked to our lives and livelihoods, it must not remain at the periphery of the country’s public health and developmental strategies,” Oluwafemi added.