National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has denied reports of banning Indomie instant noodles and has assured consumers that the product is safe for consumption.
Gatekeepers News reports that health officials in Malaysia and Taiwan had claimed to detect ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic substance responsible for lymphoid cancer and breast cancer in the product leading to a series of investigations of Indofoods, manufacturers of the product.
The Ministry of Health of Malaysia (MOH) would immediately issue a directive to hold, test and release the Indomie Special Chicken Flavour instant noodles products from Malaysia at all entry points of the country.
Despite this scare, the Director-General of the health agency, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has asked consumers not to fret over the South-Asia countries’ preemptive measures
“NAFDAC did not ban Indomie,” Professor Adeyeye said in a phone conversation with Channels Television on Monday.
“Indomie has been on the government prohibition list for many years to encourage local manufacturing.”
She also disclosed that the body has countermeasures to prevent the importation of these products from affected nations
“NAFDAC has registered several local manufacturers and the Indomie noodles have been safe,” she said.
“The Taiwan and Malaysia noodles have nothing to do with our local producers.”
Professor Adeyeye, however, stated that she was in no way disregarding the reports but “is responding to the news as a cautionary post-marketing monitoring measure to ensure that locally-made noodles stay safe.”
She also said NAFDAC will begin random sampling of Indomie noodles, including the seasoning, from the production facilities to ascertain their safety levels for consumption.
