The Federal Government Monday in Lagos destroyed 4,738 cartons (95.7 tones) of unwholesome fish said to be injurious to human health. The stock was worth N38 million .
The Fisheries Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, said the cartons in which the products were packaged were faulty right from the source, meaning there was no protective polyethylene material as primary package to keep the product from moisture content fluctuations that negatively affects the quality.
But officials of Premier Fish, owners of the cold room where the fish were kept, denied that the fish were bad, saying it would conduct an independent investigation on the issue.
The Fisheries Department dismissed claims by the company, insisting that it carried out the inspection with officials of the company and that analysis was carried out before sealing the cold room and destroying the unwholesome fish.
Led by the Acting Director of Fisheries, Mrs. Folake Areola, the department said it was the responsibility of the Federal Government to ensure that whatever product going into the market was of high quality.
According to her, “The Federal Government has gotten to a point where it becomes important to protect human health which is more important than any form of economic gain that anyone could be seeking after, and so we have decided that it is important that Nigerians should eat quality products at all times.”
Areola said based on the inspection carried out alongside the officials of the companies involved, FDF sealed up the cold rooms, leading to destruction.
Expressing displeasure at the poor quality of fish that find their way into the Nigerian market, she said consumers should demand for better quality, saying fish with sunken eye, soft body on being depressed with the finger and discoloration were physical signs that the product had gone bad.
But speaking on behalf of the management, Alhaji Taju Olalere denied that the company imported bad fish, saying “the fish we imported are good, we have good cold room but we will need to carry out our independent analysis to determine what went wrong.”
2014 AllAfrica