“Why you shouldn’t refrigerate cooked food for more than three days” – NAFDAC

To guide against pathogens, a key agents of foodborne diseases that can lead to death, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has urged Nigerians to refrain from storing cooked food in the refrigerator for more than three days.

NAFDAC explained that, cooked food stored in the refrigerator for days is susceptible to contamination.

Food safety incidents are situations where there is a potential or confirmed health risk associated with food consumption. A food incident can happen, for example, due to accidents, inadequate controls, food fraud, or natural events.

While tasking all stakeholders in the food supply chain to take deliberate actions to institute a food safety culture in their operations to mitigate the food hazards and risks that could compromise food safety, NAFDAC Director General Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye explained at the 2024 World Food Safety Day that food safety is a collective responsibility, and the need for everyone, from producers to consumers, to play their part to ensure that the food we eat is safe.

Adeyeye, in a statement by the agency’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola on Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally, one in 10 people fall ill, and 420,000 die each year due to consuming contaminated food.

This results in the loss of 33 million healthy life years, with children under five and other vulnerable groups in poorer regions being disproportionately affected.

In developing countries, about $110 billion is lost every year on medical expenses due to unsafe food.

Adeyeye, who noted that food safety is not only important for public health but a sine qua non for economic development and food security, emphasised that everybody has a role to play from the farm to the table to ensure that the food we consume is safe and will not cause damage to our health.

She added that for World Food Safety Day 2024, WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are asking all stakeholders along the food supply chain if they are prepared to address unexpected threats to food safety in an increasingly interconnected and interlinked global food supply.(The Nation).