Worried by complaints of food poisoning within airport environment, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said it would shut down food vendors whose products expose passengers and other airport users tohealth risks.
FAAN also said it will hand over vendors found culpable of selling stale and contaminated food to passengers to the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for probe and prosecution.
Managing Director/CEO of FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu, who spoke at an ‘Airport Food Safety Awareness programme held at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, decried the incessant cases of food poisoning within the country’s aviation sector, urging all stakeholders in the food distribution chain to take steps to halt the menace.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) about 3,000 people were reported to have died from contaminated food related illnesses annually in the aviation sector, excluding several unreported cases.
Among them are hundreds of unreported cases and passengers transiting airports in Nigeria who contract several sicknesses as a result of foods eaten inside or outside the airports in the country.
According to Yadudu, FAAN it is taking steps to identify and control the factors militating against safe food delivery in the Nigerian aviation sector.
“The problem of food poisoning threatens the welfare and survival of our staff, customers and the human race in general,” Yadudu said.
“The array of diseases in which environmental influences play roles is almost limitless and include disease of microbial, nutritional and toxicological origins as well as those involving physical injuries,” he added.
Yadudu said vendors will now be subjected to routine six months medical examination to ascertain that their operations are in line with the minimum hygienic standards.
He said FAAN had to raise the bar in pre- qualification requirements for food vendors at the airports to enable them meet best global practices in the food merchandising value chain.