Food Items That are Legal in Nigeria But Banned Abroad

Nigeria is a country with a rich history, especially one that shines through its diverse range of foods across the country.

However, while some of these delectable food items are legal and consumed in Nigeria, they remain banned in other countries. These food items include;

Bushmeat

Bushmeat is sometimes called game meat, a spicy, roasted meat known for its unique taste. Animals such as antelopes, wild pigs, rabbits, squirrels, alligators, crocodiles and other non-domesticated animals are used in the preparation of bushmeat.

But as juicy and savoury as bushmeat is, it is banned in the United States of America due to health concerns like these animals being carriers of diseases like ebola, and cholera, deeming them risky to consume.

Bushmeat, in any amount, found at U.S. ports of entry are terminated along with any personal items that may have come in contact with the bushmeat. There is a $250,000 fine for bringing bushmeat into the U.S.

Coffee-mate coffee creamer

In Hungary, Austria, and several Scandinavian nations, the use of a particular type of oil, extracted from soybeans and cottonseeds in products like coffee creamer, is prohibited. This is due to the occurrence of trans fat, which happens when an industrial process adds hydrogen to vegetable oil and makes it turn into a solid when it’s not supposed to.

This same phenomenon is responsible for vegetable oil and palm oil turning solid in room temperature.

Raw ackee fruit

The ackee is a member of the soapberry family, native to West Africa, with Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria, and is commonly known as the African apple.

The fruit is popular in Southern Nigeria where it is known as ishin. It is banned in Jamaica when unripe because of its poisonous nature and most ackee products have been banned from import into the U.S for the past 30 years because of concerns about poisoning from unripe fruit.