The growing campaign to make seasoning cubes a mandatory vehicle for delivering iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamin B12 to Nigerians, particularly pregnant women, deserves much closer scrutiny.
Proponents of the proposal, including interests linked to the food industry, argue that seasoning cubes could provide an efficient way of reaching millions of households with essential micronutrients. Their argument rests largely on the widespread consumption of bouillon cubes in Nigerian homes and the country's persistent burden of anaemia and neural tube defects.
At face value, the proposition may appear attractive. But framing fortified seasoning cubes as a major maternal health intervention risks overlooking a serious public health concern: the potentially harmful consequences of the high sodium content of many processed seasonings, particularly for pregnant women.
The Nigerian government must therefore carefully reconsider the growing push to fortify ultra-processed foods (UPFs) with micronutrients. Rather than addressing the underlying causes of malnutrition, such policies could inadvertently deepen Nigeria's nutrition transition by encouraging greater dependence on industrially processed foods at the expense of diverse, nutrient-dense and minimally processed staples.
The hidden risk of sodium
The central concern is not whether iron, zinc or folic acid are important. They are. The question is whether sodium-dense, ultra-processed seasoning products are an appropriate vehicle for delivering them, particularly to pregnant women.
A single bouillon cube can contain as much as 1,200mg of sodium—roughly 60 per cent of the World Health Organisation's recommended maximum daily intake of 2,000mg.
In many Nigerian households, however, one cube is rarely the only source of sodium in a meal. Multiple cubes may be used alongside table salt and other processed ingredients, potentially pushing sodium consumption far beyond recommended levels.
Excessive sodium intake can increase fluid retention and vascular resistance and contribute to elevated blood pressure. During pregnancy, these effects are particularly concerning because hypertension can develop into serious complications, including gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia.
Pre-eclampsia can involve dangerously high blood pressure, protein in the urine and damage to vital organs. In severe cases, it can progress to eclampsia, which is characterised by seizures and can threaten the lives of both mother and baby.
According to Nwagha et al. (2026), hypertensive disorders account for 16.7 per cent of maternal deaths in Nigeria and remain among the leading direct causes of maternal and perinatal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.
Against this backdrop, promoting a sodium-heavy product as a vehicle for maternal micronutrient delivery raises serious questions about whether the potential benefits outweigh the risks.
Fortification does not equal healthy food
There is also a broader problem with the assumption that adding vitamins and minerals automatically transforms an ultra-processed food into a healthy one.
Many UPFs contain combinations of high sodium, added sugars, unhealthy fats and numerous additives. Adding synthetic micronutrients does not fundamentally alter the nutritional character of the underlying product.
Nor does artificial fortification necessarily reproduce the complex nutrient interactions and bioavailability associated with diverse whole foods.
The danger is that a product can acquire a health-oriented image simply because it carries added vitamins and minerals, while its other nutritional characteristics remain unchanged.
This could contribute to what public health experts describe as the double burden of malnutrition—where micronutrient deficiencies coexist with increasing rates of diet-related non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and obesity.
Nigeria should be particularly cautious about policies that could unintentionally reinforce this pattern.
What does the evidence tell us?
The argument for seasoning-cube fortification also needs to be examined against Nigeria's own nutrition experience.
Bouillon has already been voluntarily fortified with iron, yet anaemia remains a major public health problem among Nigerian women.
Available national survey data illustrate the scale of the challenge. A comparison between the 2001 Food Consumption and Nutrition Survey and the 2021 National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey reportedly shows that anaemia among women rose from 24.3 per cent to 55 per cent over the period.
That increase should prompt policymakers to ask a fundamental question: if fortification of widely consumed processed foods is being promoted as an answer to micronutrient deficiency, why has the broader nutrition situation continued to deteriorate?
There is, at present, insufficient local evidence to conclude that fortifying bouillon and other UPFs has effectively resolved Nigeria's problem of hidden hunger.
The country's nutrition crisis is rooted in much deeper structural problems, including food insecurity, poverty, declining purchasing power and inadequate dietary diversity.
The 2021 National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey reported that 79 per cent of Nigerian households were food insecure, with 57 per cent moderately food insecure and 22 per cent severely food insecure.
For many low-income families, rising food prices have made nutrient-rich animal-source foods, fruits and vegetables increasingly difficult to afford. Households may consequently rely more heavily on inexpensive mono-crop starches and other filling but less diverse foods.
This is the problem Nigeria needs to confront.
Beware the “health halo”
The promotion of fortified UPFs also raises concerns about the role of the food industry in shaping nutrition policy.
Adding inexpensive synthetic vitamins and minerals to highly processed products can create what has been described as a “health halo”—giving consumers the impression that a product is inherently nutritious because it contains selected beneficial nutrients.
The Global Health Advocacy Incubator's Positive Nutrition Factsheet has documented the use of corporate nutrition strategies designed to reposition processed foods as positive contributors to public health.
Such approaches can shift the public conversation away from the overall nutritional quality of a product and towards the nutrients that manufacturers have added to it.
This is problematic if food companies are allowed to position commercially manufactured, sodium-heavy products as essential tools for tackling malnutrition.
Public health policy should be driven primarily by independent evidence and population health priorities, rather than corporate interests.
Nigeria needs a different nutrition strategy
Nigeria's response to anaemia, neural tube defects and other forms of malnutrition should not depend primarily on increasing consumption of processed seasonings.
Instead, policymakers should pursue interventions that tackle both micronutrient deficiencies and the underlying causes of poor diets.
One priority should be stronger regulation of sodium levels in bouillon and other processed foods. Mandatory sodium limits, coupled with clear front-of-pack nutrition labelling, could help consumers understand the health implications of products while encouraging manufacturers to reformulate.
This is particularly important for protecting vulnerable groups, including pregnant women.
At the same time, government should expand access to affordable, nutritious and minimally processed foods.
Home and community gardening initiatives could increase household access to vegetables, fruits and locally available herbs rich in micronutrients. Agricultural policies could also promote nutrient-dense staples and biofortified crops, including iron-rich cassava, zinc-rich maize and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes.
Unlike sodium-heavy processed seasonings, such approaches can contribute to dietary quality without adding unnecessary sodium to people's diets.
Strengthen proven maternal interventions
For pregnant women, Nigeria should also strengthen access to proven micronutrient interventions.
Free or subsidised iron-folic acid supplements and multiple micronutrient supplements should be made consistently available through primary healthcare facilities and community health workers.
These interventions can be targeted directly at women who need them rather than relying on widespread consumption of a processed food product to deliver a desired nutrient.
Nutrition education must also form part of the strategy.
Consumers need practical information about healthier diets, sodium consumption, food preparation and the importance of dietary diversity. Such education should be supported by policies that make healthy choices economically realistic for low-income households.
It is not enough to tell families to eat better when nutritious food remains beyond their purchasing power.
A healthier food system
Nigeria's nutrition crisis cannot be solved simply by adding synthetic micronutrients to products that are already deeply embedded in the food system.
The country needs a broader approach that simultaneously addresses anaemia, food insecurity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and the growing burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases.
The path to a healthier and more productive Nigeria is not paved with laboratory-enriched bouillon cubes. It lies in building a resilient food system that makes diverse, safe and nutritious foods accessible and affordable.
Nigeria cannot supplement its way out of a poor diet.
The priority should be food sovereignty, dietary diversity and whole-food nutrition—not greater dependence on industrial convenience.
Olukemi-Odele, a food scientist, is Programme Officer, Sodium Reduction, at Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).