NAN-AE-6
Honey
By Kudirat Musa
Abuja, Sept. 26, 2017 (NAN) An official of Sehai Food Ltd., Mr Segun Thomas, has urged Nigerians to always consume pure organic honey produced in the country to enjoy healthy living.
Thomas made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at ongoing Agrik Expo and Nigerian Agribussiness Group (NABG) conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that apart from healthy living, honey also helped in preventing all kind of diseases.
Thomas, who is the Business Development and Sales Lead for the company, added that consumption of the pure organic honey had different health benefits such as prevention of cancer, heart disease, increase in athletic performance, healing of cough and throat irritation.
He said that honey could also be used to manage sleep disorder (insomnia), heal wound, burn, boost sexual performance, improve and rejuvenate skill cells.
Other uses are reduction of ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorder.
According to him, some Nigerians are importing honey from South Africa, China, U.S., which may turn out to be adulterated and can be dangerous for citizen’s health because most of them are collection of sugar syrup.
“Some also collect maize syrup that has been put together; unfortunately it is falling below the standard of Nigeria to determine what good honey should be.
“The Nigerians will see our honey in the shop and be comparing it with foreign ones which are not of the same standard due to Nigerians madness for foreign goods.
“Though, the local honey keepers need to improve on their production to meet the demand and should also improve on their packages,’’ he said.
Thomas said that the business of honey production was still very fallow and unstructured in the country.
“I believe there is a lot of potential in the bee keeping business presently in Nigeria which is not fully exploited.
“I feel that the Federal Government can come in, in terms of funding bee keeping business, providing low or no interest rate for the sector so that we can expand the business.
“Apart from that, the Federal Government can also provide training to build the capacity of the bee keepers.
“Nigeria should not have any business importing honey; we should be producing enough honey in Nigeria to feed ourselves,’’ he added.
Thomas said that Nigeria’s honey is 100 per cent natural and pure organic, adding if well packaged, it could compete with any international honey.
“Our honey here has been certified by SON and NAFDAC for its uniqueness and being genuine.
“We are careful, we do not pasteurised by heating it, by heating means you have de-nature the honey.
“We only filter using ultrafine to remove all impurity and the wax on the honey to get it 100 per cent natural,’’ he said.
NAN reports that pasteurisation is a process of purification used in the food industry, which subjects the materials to intense heat for a short period. (NAN)
ROK/APA/KM/GY
==============
Edited by Kabir Muhammad/Grace Yussuf