The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has provided insights into the alcoholic content of beverages in sachets or small bottles of less than 200ml, revealing that they contain 30% alcohol, while beer typically contains four to eight percent alcohol.
This disclosure was made in a press statement titled, ‘What Nigerians should know about alcohol in sachet and less than 200 ml PET bottles’, which was released to PUNCH Healthwise by Christiana Obiazikwor, the Head of Public Relations Office at NAFDAC.
NAFDAC’s enforcement of the ban on alcoholic beverages in sachets, PET, and glass bottles of 200ml and below, which began on February 1, 2024, has been a topic of considerable attention.
The Director-General of the agency, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, during a press briefing in Abuja, said as of January 31, 2024, no such beverages were registered with the agency.
“The agency commenced nationwide enforcement actions on February 1, 2024, to enforce the implementation of the new policy,” she said.
Despite protests from distillers and labor unions regarding potential job losses, NAFDAC clarified in its statement that it did not ban alcohol production in larger bottles. Instead, the agency focused on prohibiting alcohol in containers or packaging that children could easily conceal, such as sachets or PET bottles less than 200ml.
However, the agency in the statement said, “NAFDAC did not ban alcohol production in bigger bottles. The Agency only banned alcohol in containers or packing that a child can easily conceal, i.e., sachet or PET bottles less than 200ml
“The alcoholic content in sachet or PET bottles less than 200ml is 30 per cent. Beer has four to eight per cent alcohol.
“The Association of Food, Beverage & Tobacco Employers and Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria signed an agreement with MOH and NAFDAC in December 2018 that they will phase out production of alcohol in sachet and PET bottles less than 200 ml by January 31, 2024. The agreement document is available. A five-year phase-out notice should be sufficient.”
NAFDAC noted that Nigeria was one of the 193 Member States of the World Health Organisation that reached a historical consensus on a global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol by adopting resolution WHA63.13 at the 63 session of the World Health Assembly, held in Geneva in 2010.
“This was seven years before my time, an agreement signed by Nigeria with other nations that we will protect youth by making alcohol not easily reachable and accessible,” the agency added.
NAFDAC raised concern over the negative effect of alcohol, noting that those most at risk of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged, commercial vehicle drivers and riders.