As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark World Food Safety Day 2025, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has issued a strong call for urgent policy interventions to reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods, UPFs and promote healthier, indigenous diets across the country.
In a statement to commemorate the day, CAPPA warned that UPFs—typically high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats but low in essential nutrients—are increasingly displacing traditional Nigerian diets, fueling a surge in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
“Ultra-processed foods are a threat to Nigeria’s food safety, security and sovereignty,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, Executive Director of CAPPA. “Policies that restrict their consumption, especially their availability in children’s diets, are a proactive approach to promoting better health and well-being.”
The organization advocated for the adoption of a range of evidence-based policies, including Front-of-Pack Warning Labels (FOPWL), mandatory sodium limits in processed foods, a strengthened sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax, and the development of a Nutrient Profile Model (NPM).
CAPPA expressed concern that junk food products, such as instant noodles and sugary drinks, have become dietary staples in many Nigerian homes, schools, and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, often replacing more nutritious traditional foods.
“This gradual normalising of junk food comes at a great price,” Oluwafemi warned. “Some of our nutritious indigenous foods that kept us healthy and protected us from so-called ‘foreign diseases’ like cancer are disappearing from our menus. This is partly because the food crops used to prepare them are declining or at risk of extinction.”
A 2024 report by the Biodiversity Education and Resource Centre and Heinrich Böll Stiftung Nigeria had previously identified several traditional crops and fruits—such as tropical almond, oha leaf, African yam bean, and bambara groundnut—as endangered due to changing food preferences and agricultural neglect.
CAPPA also drew attention to findings from its investigative report “Junk on Our Plates”, which exposed aggressive marketing tactics by food and beverage companies in seven Nigerian states. The report accused companies of targeting children and young adults with misleading claims that unhealthy products are “nutritious” or “natural.”
According to Oluwafemi, weak regulatory frameworks and the absence of clear labeling guidelines are compounding the problem. He noted that Nigeria’s current N10 per litre SSB tax is grossly inadequate and called for an increase to at least N130 per litre to make a meaningful impact on obesity and related NCDs.
“Front-of-Pack Warning Labels provide clear, easy-to-understand nutritional information, enabling consumers to make informed choices. The World Health Organization recognizes it as one of the most cost-effective tools to curb diet-related diseases,” he said.
World Food Safety Day 2025 is themed “Food Safety: Science in Action.” CAPPA stressed that the theme is a reminder that food safety is not only a health issue but one of equity and justice.
“Being so closely linked to our lives and livelihoods, food must not remain at the periphery of Nigeria’s public health and development strategies,” Oluwafemi concluded.