International customers rejected over 50 containers of suspected adulterated foodstuffs supplied from the Dawanau International Grains Market in Kano State, The PUNCH learnt on Wednesday.

The market President, Alhaji Muntaka Isa, disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing newsmen during an inspection visit to the market.

He regretted that the rejection tarnished the image and reputation of the popular grains market.

He said the management of the market had adopted measures to tackle food adulteration by traders in the market.

He warned that the management would sanction the perpetrators to protect the reputation of the market.

“We shall not fold our arms and watch a few selfish and unpatriotic individuals tarnish the good image and reputation of our market, built over the years,” he said.

In his remarks, the chairman of the market’s Board of Trustees, Alhaji Abdullahi Maidoya, said the management had constituted a committee to identify and prosecute the culprits.

Maidoya also said they would seek the intervention of government agencies, including the Federal Ministries of Trade and Investment, Police Affairs, Health and Justice to address the menace.

“We have established a quality control committee to work with government agencies and we have launched an enlightenment and mobilisation campaign to educate traders on the dangers of food adulteration,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Produce Special Service, Kano branch, Hajiya Fatima Yakubu, in her remarks, said the agency was working to tackle food adulteration.

He decried the upward trend in food adulteration cases among food-produce merchants.

“The way and manner food merchants get involved in food adulteration is very alarming. I am appealing to food commodity merchants to please, as a matter of urgency, desist from this negative conduct. The agency will not relent in fighting the ugly trend,” she warned.

PUNCH