By Ify Okoli
Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has warned Nigerians
about the possible dangers hidden in fresh fruit and vegetables, after a
laboratory test found his wife Dolapo’s freshly squeezed orange juice unfit for
human consumption.
Osinbajo shared the experience while speaking at the
Gardeners’ Seminar Open Day in Lagos on 28 August. The event, themed “Leaving The Earth Better Than We Found It,”
focused attention on food safety and responsible farming.
He said Dolapo had stopped drinking carbonated drinks years
ago and instead made fresh orange juice part of her daily routine. The change,
however, did not prevent her from developing unexplained headaches.
“She would look at my own Coke drinking habits with a lot of
disapproval,” Osinbajo said, recalling how his wife later began experiencing
strange headaches despite drinking fresh juice regularly.
After checking other foods and drinks in her routine without
finding an obvious explanation, she decided to have a batch of the juice tested
in a laboratory.
The result, Osinbajo said, was unexpected.
“The results came back. It showed that the orange juice,
freshly squeezed, was not fit for human consumption,” he said, stressing that
the finding concerned juice prepared from fresh oranges.
For Osinbajo, the incident points to a much wider
food-safety problem involving the use of chemicals by some farmers and traders
to accelerate ripening, preserve produce or improve its appearance.
He specifically mentioned calcium carbide, which he said was
being used to force fruits including bananas, mangoes and tomatoes to ripen and
change colour more quickly.
Osinbajo referred to a 2024 study in which 10 of 20 fruit
sellers interviewed admitted using calcium carbide. He also cited another study
that put its use among surveyed sellers at 25 per cent.
He further pointed to a 2023 survey of 50 fruit and
vegetable retailers in Lagos. Twenty-two respondents, representing more than
half of those surveyed, admitted using chemicals to preserve their produce.
The former vice-president said substances reportedly
mentioned in the studies included calcium carbide, gamma-lin-20, Sniper and
phosphite, which he described as a highly toxic fumigant.
He warned consumers not to assume that attractive-looking
produce is necessarily safe, saying harmful substances may enter food at
different stages between the farm and the household.
“The fact that fruit looks fresh doesn’t mean that it is
safe,” he said, adding that even natural drinks could contain dangerous
substances introduced before they reach consumers.
Osinbajo called for stronger regulation and enforcement,
alongside better public education for farmers and traders on safer
alternatives.
He also urged consumers to be more vigilant by questioning
sellers, examining produce carefully and reporting suspicious practices.
His warning comes amid wider concerns over unsafe,
counterfeit and substandard products in Nigerian markets, placing renewed
attention on what happens to food before it reaches the table.
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