The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) went into action on Monday, 6th January, to shut down a Chinese supermarket for allegedly selling goods labeled in Chinese without proper notification/licensing.
Shaba Mohammed, NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement, said that they (the agency) received credible information about the supermarket’s activities at Azba Mall, 2 Durban Street, Wuse 2, Abuja.
He said the supermarket violated the agency’s rule by selling items labeled in Chinese in their supermarket. About 90% of the goods being sold in the supermarket are labeled in Chinese.
Mohammed, who is also the Chairman of the Federal Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs, and Unwholesome Processed Foods with the agency, said the agency swung into action to stop the supermarket activities.
The supermarket was sealed for violating NAFDAC regulations; investigation will surely go on about this supermarket; we will also need to go to its warehouse in order to stop them from selling some products. The whole information about this supermarket just go to us; if we had know the information from the beginning, we would have taken regulatory action we just took against it now.
Selling items in foreign language in a country is a violation of our law; if you must sell anything either in Arabic, Chinese and French, you must have English translation of it.
More than 90 percent of the goods sold in the supermarket are in Chinese language. You might find some Nigerians patronising the supermarket; they should be able to read about some of the items on the shelves.
Some of these items have also expired. Even if they are giving global listing to import, they ought to be in English language. This supermarket cannot present to NAFDAC a document through which the items were approved in foreign language. This is not acceptable and that is why we have to seal the supermarket; we will invite the owner for further investigation before we can conclude on the case.”
“It is not every case we charge to court; we will take regulatory action against the supermarket, which may be an administrative action.
Before any certification is given by NAFDAC, it would have visited the site/shop for goods storage and distribution practice.
NAFDAC, upon its visit, will ensure that the facilities are in accordance with NAFDAC regulations,” he said.
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