International customers have rejected over 50 containers of suspected adulterated foodstuff supplied from the Dawanau International Grains Market, Kano State.
President of the market, Alhaji Muntaka Isa, disclosed this while addressing journalists during an inspection visit to the market, on Wednesday, lamenting that the rejection has damaged the market’s reputation.
Isa said the management of the market has, therefore, taken bold steps to tackle food adulteration by traders in the market.
He warned that the management would sanction the perpetrators of the act to protect the reputation of the market.
“We shall not fold our arms and watch a few selfish and unpatriotic individuals tarnish the good image and reputation of our market, built over the years.”
Also, the Chairman of the market’s Board of Trustees, Alhaji Abdullahi Maidoya, said the management has set up a committee to fish out and prosecute the culprits.
Maidoya said they would also seek the assistance of government agencies, including the Federal Ministries of Trade and Investment, the Ministry of Police Affairs, that of Health, and the Ministry of Justice.
“We have established a Quality Control Committee to work with government agencies and we have launched an enlightenment and mobilisation campaign with a view to educating traders on the dangers of food adulteration”, he said.
In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, Federal Produce Special Service, Kano branch, Hajiya Fatima Yakubu, said the agency is working assiduously to address food adulteration.
Yakubu decried the rising cases of food adulteration among food-produce merchants.
“The way and manner food merchants get involved in food adulteration is very alarming. I am appealing to food commodity merchants to please, as a matter of urgency, desist from this negative attitude. The agency will not relent in fighting the ugly trend,” she warned.