The Federal Government is considering the introduction of grinding machines made with stainless steel to replace iron-made ones commonly found in local markets and neighbourhoods.

The government blamed the rising cases of terminal ailments on the metal elements deposited in foods by grinding machines.



The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, made this known in his presentation to the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture in defence of his ministry’s budget for 2017, on Thursday.

The minister also hinted that the Federal Government was about to impose tax on imported tomato pastes, 80 per cent of which he said was dangerous to health.

He said, “Only yesterday, we passed a regulation that we are going to tax imported tomato pastes because the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control gave us a report that 80 per cent of the pastes and purees coming in is unfit for human consumption. The ingredients put in these pastes coming in are actually harmful to health.

“We are also looking at the grinding machines in markets and stores. Metal poisoning is increasing in the our diets. There is a report by Federal Institute of Industrial Research (on this). We are going to introduce stainless steel processing machines for the grinding of grains, tomatoes and onions. Some of the strange diseases of the liver and the kidney you see today in hospitals have to do with the way we process our foods.”

Make people go buy blender na. The grime in those public grinders alone has got to be cancerous.