EATING IN TRAFFIC-SAFETY RULES

My attention has been drawn to the amount of bad packaged products in the Nigerian food market. The product ranges from packaged beef sausage to ice cream as well as biscuits and all. Have you ever noticed holes in nylon packaged products? Haven’t you heard of how important packaging is to products? People say things like “packaging sells the product” right?  Well in the food industry, packaging does not just sell the products, packaging is to protect the product strictly from contamination hence the concept of aseptic packaging in the food industry. Violation of aseptic packaging should lead to total recall of products and real sanctions on the erring companies. A single defect in packaging of food products may contaminate the product and also cross contaminate the whole lot in the same bulk with it. Question is-how are these defects controlled in Nigeria? Have you seen any announcement of product recall of food products recently? Have you been a victim of any soft biscuit, bad sausage roll or even badly sealed ice cream?(please share your experience below).

Let us take it one at time on badly packaged products and effect on our health and safety. Let us take the issue of badly packaged beef sausage roll or any other meat or fish product. Packaged beef rolls are so common that they have been termed as Nigeria’s traffic hunger saviour. A bottle of chilled soft drink and a packaged beef roll is all you need inside “naija holdup” to keep going. If you aren’t careful anyway, you might be poisoning yourself without your own knowledge.

When next you buy a beef sausage roll inside traffic, aside the best before date you normally check, please ensure you check the seals at the two ends of the product, and the long line of seal at the back of the product. Any rough edges, holes or if the edges look like a burnt nylon under heat is an indication that the product is not safe for consumption and please do not buy! If by error you have bought, please return or throw away! Do not consume such products.

What are the risks of consuming an exposed beef roll? Meat and fish products are susceptible to contamination by Salmonella spp. Ingestion of this microorganism is very dangerous especially in children whose immunity is very low. The common typhoid fever is actually caused by a strain of this microbe. Another disease known as salmonellosis is common with ingestion of foods contaminated with this microbe. It could also be diarrohea or simple stomach disorder or worse still vomiting and irritation. Remember those days you had tummy troubles without knowing what you ate?  So, if you start taking note, you may be saving yourself from health hazards if you avoid badly packaged beef roll. If you have a child and you give him this snack, please make sure it is safe before you allow intake.

Remember, if you’re not sure, don’t consume!