The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) announced that noodles made in the country did not contain ethylene oxide or its metabolism, therefore cleared for consumption.

Mojisola Adeyeye, the Director-General of NAFDAC, said this during a media briefing to announce the findings of its inquiry into whether noodles produced in the country contained ethylene oxide.

Mrs. Adeyeye stated that the probe was prompted by Malaysia and Taiwan recalling Indomie Instant Noodles Special Chicken Flavour due to the alleged presence of ethylene oxide, a chemical linked to an elevated risk of cancer.

NAFDAC, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria, extended the scope of the investigation to other brands beyond Indomie Instant noodles.

She said: “At the time of my initial press release on the issue, I assured the public that a thorough investigation of the products would be conducted both at the factory and market levels and that our findings would be communicated.

“As soon as we received the news of the product recalls in Malaysia and Taiwan, immediately I requested the Director, Food Safety and Applied Nutrition to carry out investigation and random sampling of Indomie instant noodles from the production facilities.

“And extend the investigation to other brands of instant noodles offered for sale to Nigerians.

“Imported noodles are not expected to be sold in Nigeria because NAFDAC does not register imported noodles as a result of the ban by the Nigerian government many years ago to foster local production.

“Samples of chicken-flavoured instant noodles of various brands and the seasonings were drawn from the production facilities across the country to ensure robust investigation.

“A total of one hundred and fourteen (114) samples of instant noodles and the seasonings were received, while samples were also collected from Lagos, Abuja and Kano.”

Mrs Adeyeye added: “The compound of interest, ethylene oxide, is a colourless, odourless gas that is used to sterilise medical devices and has been implicated as a cancer-causing chemical.

“We did not only analyse for ethylene oxide and its derivative 2-chloroethanol in the noodles and seasonings, we also analysed for other contaminants such as mycotoxins and heavy metals in the samples.”

NAFDAC vowed to continue to remain proactive and committed to its responsibilities of protecting the public’s health.