The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has warned bakery and confectionery operators against making false or misleading claims about their products, stressing that consumers must receive exactly what they pay for.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Mr Tunji Bello, gave the warning at a stakeholders’ engagement forum organised by the FCCPC’s South-West Zonal Office for bakery and confectionery operators in Lagos State.

The forum, themed “Building Consumer Trust Through Quality and Safety: A Regulatory Compliance Mandate for Industry Operators,” focused on strengthening compliance, product safety and consumer protection within the industry.

Bello said operators had a responsibility to ensure that their claims about products accurately reflected what they actually offered to consumers.

He stressed that bakery and confectionery businesses must not compromise the standards, weight, size, quality or value of their products.

According to him, consumers should not be charged for goods or services that were not delivered as advertised.

He said the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018, require businesses to provide truthful and accurate information to consumers.

Bello explained that such information includes claims about the ingredients used in products.

“If you state that a product contains a particular ingredient, the contents should correspond with the information contained in the leaflets enclosed in the products,” he said.

The FCCPC boss said the commission was particularly concerned about the quality and safety of bakery and confectionery products because they are consumed regularly by millions of Nigerians, including children and adults.

He said the commission would continue to ensure that consumers had access to safe and quality products.

Bello urged operators to build their businesses around trust, noting that consumers ordinarily had no way of knowing where ingredients were sourced, how they were mixed or how they were stored before being used in production.

He said the commission would therefore continue to engage industry operators to promote compliance and prevent practices capable of exposing consumers to health and safety risks.

However, Bello warned that the FCCPC had statutory powers to sanction businesses whose products or practices constituted hazards to the public.

He urged operators to comply with applicable standards and laws, warning that violators would face the consequences prescribed by law.

The executive vice chairman stressed that the commission’s objective was not primarily to punish businesses but to protect consumers and ensure that companies did not gain an unfair advantage by violating consumer rights.

He advised operators to regularly review their production processes, audit the products and information passed on to consumers, and strengthen traceability and product labelling.

Bello urged businesses to make quality an organisational value and treat safety as non-negotiable.

He also called on operators to remain truthful and transparent in their dealings with consumers and ensure that every product or service delivered matches what was promised.