By John Oba Abuja As Nigerians continue to express fear over the safety of Fanta and Sprite, both products of the Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC), the Coalition of Civil Society Groups (CCSG), has urged Nigerians to be free to take these drinks saying both products are safe for consumption. According to the groups, the Benzoic level of Fanta and Sprite are in compliance with the national and international approved standard.
Addressing the press yesterday, at a roundtable stakeholders forum, the president of the Coalition, Comrade Etuk Bassey Williams, said the group’s interest in the outcome of the litigation between the CEO of Fijabi Adebo Holdings Limited, Dr. Emmanuel Fijabi Adebo, and NBC, producers of Fanta and Sprite, which borders on food safety of both products led to it carrying out an independent research in order to ascertain the safety of the products.
He said: “Conclusively, based on our fi ndings, we make bold to say that the benzoic level in Fanta and Sprite produced and sold by NBC in Nigeria, are in compliance with the levels approved by all relevant national and international regulators and as such, it is safe for consumption.
” Etuk further stated that a risk assessment is constantly conducted by NAFDAC on NBC to ascertain maximum limits of food additives acceptable in their various brands of beverages, and that the level of benzoic acid in Fanta and Sprite before now is set at 200mg/kg. According to him, this level aside being lower when compared to globally and locally acceptable level, will not in any way produce the level of acidity that can be termed as dangerous to human health even when mixed with ascorbic acid He said benzoic acid standard varies from country to country, adding that while the standard for benzoic acid in Canada is set at 1000mg/kg, that of South Africa and Australia, Brazil and Argentina is set at 400mg/kg and 500mg/kg respectively, hence what is obtainable in Nigeria is not what is obtainable elsewhere.
He said: “Benzoic acid is a colourless crystalline solid mostly used globally as preservatives in various food and beverage products, as well as cosmetic and pharmaceutical products in line with global standard as set by Codex and local standard, which in the case of Nigeria is set by NAFDAC. “However due to diff erent environmental conditions, the benzoic acid standard varies from country to country.
While the standard for benzoic acid in Canada is set at 1000mg/kg, that of South Africa & Australia, Brazil and Argentina is set at 400mg/kg and 500mg/ kg respectively. “Also, while the standard level of the UK & EU is set at 150mg/kg, that of Nigeria is set at 250mg/kg.
In addition, Codex for the purpose of proper understanding was established by the World Health Organization to setup globally acceptable codes of practice and guidelines relating to food, food production and safety and the current permissible level of benzoic acid is set at 250mg/kg.
“Beverages from USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa if exported to the UK and vice versa with their current benzoic acid level standards will fail similar test and this does not in anyway portray the ineptitude of regulators in these countries, neither does it suggest that their respective local beverage manufacturers are violators of laid down standards, but only shows that there are diff erent standards of operations from country to country.”
He explained further that the current Codex standard set for benzoic acid for beverages globally is 250mg/kg while for Nigeria, as set by NAFDAC is also 250mg/ kg. He therefore, call on Nigerians to jettison the wrong perception emanating from media reports that “Fanta and Sprite beverages, which are fully compliant with all national and international food quality and safety standards are unsafe,” simply because their levels of Benzoic acid are not within the UK standards.
