31st July, 2015
Daniels Ekugo
Officials at the Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC, Plant in Agidingbi, Lagos State, western Nigeria, said they adhere strictly to international standards in their manufacturing operations and safety at the plant.
Uzo Odenigbo, NBC’s Head, Public Affairs and Communications said the company exercises due care in the manufacturing and processing of their products in a way that makes it a surprise that consumers still find reasons never to complain about their products, the flagship of which are Coca-Cola and Fanta.
He stated this Thursday during during a media facility tour of the bottling plant, an exercise he said was aimed at familiarising the media with the internal processes of the leading breverage company.
The plant, known to be the biggest of the various plants of the soft beverage manufacturers in Nigeria, boasts of 12 lines where soft drinks, water and juice drinks are processed and packaged.
Odenigbo emphasised that NBC has been adjudged the best in terms of quality.
“We have proved that we are still the best in terms of maintaining high quality standards in the production of our beverages and high level of compliance with NAFDAC’s regulations and policies.
“NBC recently was recognized by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund – Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NSITF-NECA) Safe Workplace Intervention Project during their 58th Annual General Meeting and Award Ceremony of NECA which took place in Lagos.
“At NBC, we give utmost priority to quality and safety as both form an integral part of our annual business plan. At the core of our business is our objective to produce and deliver world class quality products with zero tolerance to workplace accidents wherever we operate. To achieve this, all employees, contractors on site and visitors are constantly re-oriented to adhere to stringent safety principles and practices,” he said.
During the facility tour, journalists saw firsthand, high standard of processing and safety procedures.
A visitor on the tour a visitor explained: “What is clear now is that with what I have seen, NBC exercises due care in their manufacturing processes but being human there might still be error margins, though minimal. It is up to them to strive for continuous improvement, while regulators like NAFDAC should make such facility tours regular so that they would not rest on their oars.”
During the tour, each visitor was provided with personal protective equipment such as overall, ear plugs, eye glasses, safety boots and hair net.
P.M.NEWS correspondent observed that there are many control checks and inspections, which the company says is because the empty bottles come in dirty and polluted from the public unlike the plastic bottles and cans.
The first control check starts as soon as the empty bottles are received from the public. The bottles are inspected for chipped necks, breakages, heavy soiling, foreign objects and foreign bottles. The ones that do not meet the standards are eliminated and destroyed at this very first stage.
Thereafter, the empty bottles in the crates are placed on the conveyor belt to the uncaser machine which removes the bottles from the crates.
A second control check called the ‘Pre-Inspection’ takes place at this stage. Here, human inspectors inspect the bottles again for chipped necks, damage, heavy soils, foreign objects like molds, cement, paint, candle-wax etcetera. Bottles that are heavily soiled are removed as part of measures to ensure output quality is not compromised.
The bottles now go through the washer with its several stages to ensure thorough cleanliness before finally going to the rinser.
The bottles are again inspected for residual caustic, nonviable mold, bottle appearance and residual liquid. They are now transported to another point where the washed bottles are inspected.
From this point, the bottles are transferred to the All Surface Electronic Bottle Inspector machine which again inspects the bottles for defects. If the bottles are not okay, the pusher rejects and pushes them out to another line through which they flow out of the unit.
After this, the certified washed bottles are transferred to the filler. At this stage there are so many critical control points all in the bid to make sure that the products meet the Food Safety Standards.
It was observed that at any point during the production process, if a malfunction is detected, the whole production is put on hold until the quality re-verification is carried out.
At every stage, it was clear that the consumer’s interest is protected.