NIGERIA – Nigeria’s standards watchdog the Standards Organisation of Nigeria(SON) has hosted a Technical Committee (TC) meeting to deliberate, review and amend 11 Nigeria Industrial Standards (NIS) for fats, oils, oil seed and tree nuts, to ensure the continued relevance of standards in meeting up with market demands.
In his opening remarks the DG Mallam Salim Farouk who was represented by Mrs. Talatu Ethan, Director North-Central zone, commended the effort of the TC for providing their expertise, technical know-how and wealth of experience in the noble assignment.
He also commended them for being committed and instrumental to the development of standards for this sector.
“Based on the response from stakeholders, the meeting was convened to consider for review, important standards that are in constant demand to support the growth of our economy and by guiding producers, marketers, distributors and consumers to ensure product quality, safety and fair-trade practices,” the DG stated.
As stated by Salim, the review of standards is generally guided by certain principles, a key part of which is stakeholders’ involvement and participation to arrive at a consensus.
He, therefore, called on the committee to arrive at positive conclusions that will support local manufacture, import and export of the products as required by the standards, since consensus remains crucial in standards development.
The Chairman of the Technical Committee, Omodele Aluko in his welcome address pointed out that the TC meeting was the first to be held since the pandemic and acknowledged the workload that comes with it.
Aluko, consequently, tasked all the members to make constructive inputs as there was a lot to be mulled over, and to draft standards that will stand the test of time.
The 11 standards deliberated on include ones for edible cotton seed oil, coconut oil, groundnut oil, edible palm kernel oil, edible refined palm oil and its forms, maize oil, edible rape-seed Oil, soya bean oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil and the Code of Practice for the storage and transport of edible fat and oil in bulk.
Some of the stakeholders in attendance were representatives from the National Agency for food and drug administration (NAFDAC), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), PZ Wilmar, Toseett Ltd, West Africa Soy Industries Ltd, Fortune oil Mills Nigeria LTD and Ar-Rachid Ltd.
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