A friend of mine called to report to me few days ago that he went to a shop to get some bottles of alcoholic drinks (spirit) to help his wife who just gave birth to a baby… burn some fat. It is a common local practice among nursing mothers here in Nigeria. I don’t really know how effective the result is. Anyway, that is not my bone of contention for writing this piece.

After getting the drinks, my friend told me he saw some scary particles in the drink after his wife drank from one of the bottles. On discovering this, he quickly checked the other bottle which is still sealed and discovered that there were some noticeable particles in the bottle too. So, he called to ask for my advice since his wife had been stooling and vomiting for some days now. She is presently admitted at the hospital. We have decided to take this case up against the company. Any lawyer interested in helping us out to seek justice should please private chat me as soon as possible. We have the sealed bottle with particles still with us and the receipt from the shop we purchased the items as evidence.

WHY ARE SACHET CONSUMABLE PRODUCTS NOT PACKAGED IN TRANSPARENT MATERIALS?

The experience above prompted me to ask many questions. If we could easily discover particles from the bottle of the popular alcoholic drink because the bottle is transparent, what happens to those that are not transparent? How do we just trust these companies to give us the 100% quality that they claim to give in their adverts?

I think the relevant authorities really need to look at this issue and stop these companies from endangering the lives of people. Even if the products are certified by the quality control unit of the company, there is a need for consumers to also check the products before consuming it.

I am aware that most of these business owners who struggle to survive in this harsh economy also face a huge problem with piracy. Who knows, the drinks bought by my friend could have been a pirated product. So, who should we blame for his terrible experience? The government agencies in charge (for not sanitizing the industry)? The business owners (for not orientating the public on how to detect a fake product)? Or the faceless murderers who produced the pirated products?

We are now in the era of products packaged in sachet. There is sachet powder milk, sachet condensed milk, sachet tomato paste, sachet water, sachet hot/herbal drinks (plenty of them are all over Nigerian market), sachet butter, sachet vegetable oil, etc. So, to save us from putting many more Nigerians at the risk of consuming harmful substances from consumable products in sachets, it will not be a bad idea if the government can help control the production and packaging of these products by ensuring that they are in transparent materials just as we have in sachet water which is popularly called “pure water”. I hope this gets to the appropriate agency before it gets out of hand. Please, keep sharing and mentioning the agencies concerned till it gets to them.

God bless Nigeria!



Some Facts You May Need to Know About Alcohol Drinks in Sachets

June 2016: Malawi Banned the Sales of Alcohol in Sachets
https://mwnation.com/cso-joins-alcohol-sachets-ban-tussle/

November 2016: Ivory Coast Banned the Sales of Alcohol in Sachets
https://www.informationng.com/2016/11/ivory-coast-bans-sale-alcohol-sachets.html

March 2017: Tanzania Banned the Sales of Alcohol in Sachets
https://www.africanews.com/2017/03/01/tanzania-bans-alcohol-in-sachets-to-protect-the-youth-and-environment/

June 2019: Uganda Banned the Sales of Alcohol in Sachets
https://inform.ng/uganda-stops-sale-alcohol-sold-sachets/

Nigeria is still planning to phase out alcohol drinks in sachets
https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/nafdac-to-phase-out-alcoholic-drinks-in-satchets/


Seychelles: 13.8 litres of pure alcohol per head
Nigeria: 13.4
Gabon: 11.5
Equatorial Guinea: 11.3
Eswatini (Swaziland): 9.9
Namibia: 9.8
Uganda: 9.5
Tanzania: 9.4
South Africa: 9.3
Kenya: 3.4
Mauritania, Somalia, Libya: 0

Source: http://brandinspector..com/2019/12/why-are-sachet-consumable-products-not.html

Anybody dat drink alcohol will die

Kestolove:
Anybody dat drink alcohol will die

no pics sef

ABCthings:
no pics sef

Picture of what?

That could be a case of adulterated wine..... Irrespective of where they were bought from...

Hmmm! This is terrible. I lost a friend last year from something related to this. He was used to drinking alcohol excessively. His wife reported that he drank some sachets and slept and he didn't wake up again. This dude was not poor o, he just chose to be 'close to the street lifestyle" just as he always called it. Full of live and very social. May his soul rest in peace. Thanks @OP for sharing this. I hope it gets to the right person.

Legal battle won't be a walk in the park. These companies are prepared for situations like this. How do you prove beyond reasonable doubt that you are fond of keeping receipts after purchase and not for this very reason. The environment the substance was kept could have aided in precipitating what now has proved harmful. Any number of way out for them leaving you out of pocket with no proper justice. Your seeing this as a payday could and would almost certainly backfire. In short count your loses and never patronize alcohol again. You can easily achieve a more notable and admirable results by leading a smearing campaign against them like you are doing now. State your case and leave people to draw their own conclusions. Don't buy alchol again.

DanielJones:


Picture of what?

of the particles in the bottle

Some Nigerians are heartless.

ABCthings:
of the particles in the bottle

Haba! How do you expect him to put that here. Use your brain na.

Dignity5:
Legal battle won't be a walk in the park. These companies are prepared for situations like this. How do you prove beyond reasonable doubt that you are fond of keeping receipts after purchase and not for this very reason. The environment the substance was kept could have aided in precipitating what now has proved harmful. Any number of way out for them leaving you out of pocket with no proper justice. Your seeing this as a payday could and would almost certainly backfire. In short count your loses and never patronize alcohol again. You can easily achieve a more notable and admirable results by leading a smearing campaign against them like you are doing now. State your case and leave people to draw their own conclusions. Don't buy alchol again.

Nice contribution, but you seem not to still get the point. @OP's campaign is to make all sachet products transparent. Not only alcohol. However, OP is also indirectly advocating for the ban of alcohol drinks in sachets.

This is the wrongest way to loose weight. Know ye that this is not a common practice amongst women that had babies, maybe where you come from. In this age of massive education and enlightenment, someone is looking for a shortcut to loose weight. You can only loose weight when you reduce eating and increase exercise.
Focus on reviving the woman and her liver before asking about the company.

MamaFryo:

Nice contribution, but you seem not to still get the point. @OP's campaign is to make all sachet products transparent. Not only alcohol. However, OP is also indirectly advocating for the ban of alcohol drinks in sachets.

I didn't read the entire post , that was certainly lopsided.

I will take time to read and write a more informed post , I think this is a problem worth solving.

Na wa o. Make I open mouth . what won’t one see in this life. Speedy recovery to your friend’s wife.

What kind of alcohol comes in a pouch and helps loose weight? It sounds sketchy.

What you should be advocating for is a total ban on the use of sachets for the storage of alcoholic beverages, not a request to make it transparent. Light passing through a completely transparent sachet/plastic/paper can react with the packaging and cause the formation of microbes in the content - this does not happen through transparent glass.
Sachets generally ought not be used for packaging alcohol, whether transparent or not - even in opaque sachets, alcoholic brew can still react with the inner surface of the the sachets if kept in storage for too long.

For some of the other consumable products on your list like milk, tomato paste, and butter, their chemical composition makes it necessary to package them in opaque containers or sachets - using transparent packaging will reduce the shelf life which is not good for manufacturing/production costs.

crackhaus:
What you should be advocating for is a total ban on the use of sachets for the storage of alcoholic beverages, not a request to make it transparent. Light passing through a completely transparent sachet/plastic/paper can react with the packaging and cause the formation of microbes in the content - this does not happen through transparent glass.
Sachets generally ought not be used for packaging alcohol, whether transparent or not - even in opaque sachets, alcoholic brew can still react with the inner surface of the the sachets if kept in storage for too long.

For some of the other consumable products on your list like milk, tomato paste, and butter, their chemical composition makes it necessary to package them in opaque containers or sachets - using transparent packaging will reduce the shelf life which is not good for manufacturing/production costs.

Interesting. This is has helped to answer many of @OP's questions. Are you a chemist?

MamaFryo:


Interesting. This is has helped to answer many of @OP's questions. Are you a chemist?

Chemical Engineer.
Although my specialization is not on the manufacturing/production aspect, but I have some knowledge in this area.

crackhaus:

Chemical Engineer.
Although my specialization is not on the manufacturing/production aspect, but I have some knowledge in this area.

Oh I see.