For every product or service delivered by a business owner, the onus lies on the supplier to ensure the health and safety of the transaction to the consumer. This begins with safety in consumption of the product or service, all the way to disposal of the resulting waste, which has huge impacts on the environment. It is, therefore, not surprising that a wave of panic came over the public when details of the lawsuit against Coca-Cola for using excessively large amounts of sunset yellow and benzoic acid in some of its products came to light.
According to news reports, Fijabi Adebo Holdings Limited bought large quantities of Coca-Cola, Fanta Orange, Sprite, Fanta Lemon, Fanta Pineapple and soda water from the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) for export and retail in the United Kingdom. It was then discovered by UK health authorities that these products had excessive amounts of sunset yellow and benzoic acid, which are confirmed to be carcinogenic. Fijabi Adebo went ahead to file a law suit against the NBC in March 2007, receiving a final ruling in March 2017.
In an official statement released by NBC, it stated that there are different approved levels of benzoic acid between Nigeria and UK, but all its products are well within internationally accepted limits. Report state, “The UK standard limits benzoic acid in soft drinks to a maximum of 150 mg/kg. Both Fanta and Sprite have benzoic levels of 200 mg/kg which is lower than the Nigerian regulatory limit of 250 mg/kg when combined with ascorbic acid and 300 mg/kg without ascorbic acid, and lower than the 600 mg/kg international limit set by CODEX – the joint intergovernmental body responsible for harmonizing food standards globally.”
The question, however, immediately comes to mind: why such disparity in the standards guiding the use of benzoic acid in drinks? More so, are our regulatory agencies being negligent in their duties by introducing such lenient standards? From our understanding, the use of benzoic acid per country is different due to varying climatic factors. For instance, the UK is more of a temperate region, and therefore, requires less quantity of preservatives than drinks made in the more tropical region of Nigeria. Therefore, international standards like those provided by CODEX are even more useful, because they set the highest maximum amount of chemical substances that can be used, regardless of external conditions.
After 10 years since the incident, the court has ordered that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) mandates the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Plc to include a written warning that the content of its soft drinks should not be taken with ascorbic acid – also known as Vitamin C – as same becomes poisonous, on all bottles of Fanta and Sprite soft drinks manufactured by the company. The NBC has, however, pushed back on this ruling, perhaps because it is an admission of guilt? Or because this is truly a false claim?
While the House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the operations of the Nigerian Bottling Company Limited and other firms that produce soft drinks in the country, to ascertain the safety of its products for consumption by Nigerians, the responsibility also falls on the NBC – and other companies – to ensure the health and safety of its products and more importantly, create the right amount of awareness about its products. Companies must ensure that they develop and pay attention to globally acceptable processes and procedures that relate to customer health & safety, compliance with regulations and codes, product and service labelling, customer satisfaction, marketing communications, and a host of others.
The business dictionary defines responsibility as “a duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task – assigned by someone, or created by one’s own promise or circumstances – that one must fulfil, and which has a consequent penalty for failure.” Going by this definition, failure to meet obligations and expectations from key stakeholders, had dire consequences for any type of organisations. Case in point, raise your hand if you know people who have avoided all Coca-Cola products since the story broke?
As the NBC makes moves to resolve this situation, it is important that it continuously looks inwards to consider innovative methods to ensure the health and safety of its products, including reviewing its policies, research and development into better and safer ingredients, improved production processes, local and international certifications, and so on. Then, it can work on reporting and communicating its efforts to key stakeholders to ensure that respective needs and expectations are being managed in the most transparent, responsive and accommodating manner.