Fake food and drinks: the signs to look for

How fake food and drinks get into the market

The cases in this guide come from six countries, and they fall into five groups:

• Refilled bottles: used bottles of a known brand, collected and filled with something else.
• Copied packaging: new sachets, cans or labels printed to look like the original.
• Expired goods with new dates: real products past their date, cleaned and given a new one.
• Adulterated raw food: palm oil or other staples mixed with dyes or cheaper ingredients.
• Diluted products: drinks and powders stretched with water, sugar, starch or colouring.

In Nigeria, NAFDAC Director-General Mojisola Adeyeye said in June 2026 that food and beverages are the most counterfeited products after cosmetics.

What regulators and police have found

Nigeria: refilled bottles in Aba

In January 2025, NAFDAC raided Cemetery Market in Aba with the military, the DSS and the police. Officers found over 240 shops that had been turned into factories, and over 1,500 cartons of fake and substandard products were destroyed.

Adeyeye said the factories used dirty recycled bottles, cloned packaging of other brands, water from unhygienic sources, saccharin and colouring. In the alcoholic drinks, cheaper sugar and starch had been mixed in. NAFDAC also found three warehouses stockpiling expired Hollandia Yoghurt for revalidation, meaning new dates.

Kenya: cooking oil and sugar

In September 2025, the Anti-Counterfeit Authority and other agencies raided a yard in Shimanzi, Mombasa, that had been turned from handling ship sludge into a counterfeit cooking oil factory. Officers found 13 tankers and metal drums of dirty oil, and arrested seven people. The suspects allegedly used the names of 13 local cooking oil brands. The authority took samples for safety testing.

A month earlier, the authority stopped three lorries near Malindi carrying 676 bags of counterfeit sugar branded Butali and other labels, along with jerricans of cooking oil.

South Africa: relabelled tinned fish

In November 2024, police raided a facility in Daleside, Gauteng, and found expired Lucky Star pilchards from 2021 and 2022 relabelled with 2026 dates, in Woolworths-labelled cartons. Woolworths said it had strong reason to believe the stock came from a rejected imported shipment.

Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania

• Ghana, July 2026: the Food and Drugs Authority closed 44 food production sites, including sachet water makers and cold stores. Several were unlicensed or working in unhygienic conditions.
• Uganda, 2025 to 2026: UNBS seized more than 880 tonnes of substandard goods, including food, during 6,642 inspections in one financial year.
• Tanzania, June 2026: the Tanzania Bureau of Standards destroyed 110 tonnes of substandard, expired and prohibited goods in Mkuranga District, including 3 tonnes of expired food.

The signs on a fake milk sachet

In August 2025, NAFDAC warned the public about fake Cowbell Our Milk 12g sachets found in Nasarawa and Kano. NAFDAC listed these signs of the fake:

• The content in the sachet did not look like milk.
• The sachet used old artwork.
• The batch details were printed with ink, not laser.
• The coding was on a different part of the sachet, not the coding area.
• The seals and cuts on the sides had been made by hand.

NAFDAC warned that fake food may contain toxic chemicals or unapproved additives. It said fake milk can cause foodborne illness, allergic reactions, organ damage or, in severe cases, death. Infants, children, pregnant women and older people face the most risk.

Adulterated palm oil and cooking oil

In September 2021, NAFDAC warned palm oil sellers in Nigeria against adding azo dye to make the oil look redder. The agency said the dye can cause cancer and harm the body's organs, and asked you to be suspicious of palm oil that looks unusually red. It also warned against carrying groundnut oil in tankers that had held kerosene.

Unbranded oil sold from open drums has no label, batch number or registration number to inspect. Get it from a seller you know, and stop using any oil with an unusual colour, smell or taste.

Signs a food or drink may be fake

• The seal: a cap that turns too easily, a broken ring under the cap, glue marks, or foil that is not sealed evenly.
• The bottle or can: scratches, scuffs, rust or a faded label on a product that should be new. These are signs of a refilled container.
• The print: blurred text, colours that look wrong, or artwork that differs from what is on the shelf at a shop you trust.
• The batch number and dates: smudged ink, print in a different place from usual, or dates on the bottle neck or a sticker instead of the label.
• The contents: a different taste, smell, colour or thickness, or sediment in a drink that is usually clear.
• The price: much cheaper than other shops. Ghana's FDA says a ridiculously cheap product should raise suspicion.
• The registration number or quality mark: missing, or not matching the product name, size and company when you search it. See how to verify a NAFDAC number and the KEBS Standardization Mark.

Dates are a common target. In November 2025, sellers in Jos, Nigeria, used a chemical to erase the dates on expired drinks and printed new ones on the bottle necks. In 2019, Ghana's FDA detained canned Lucozade in Accra after the expiry dates were changed by a year. Our guide on reading a batch number and expiry date shows more signs of a changed date.

Be careful with viral lists of fake products

Lists of "fake products" travel fast on WhatsApp and social media. In October 2026, NAFDAC said one such list did not come from the agency and asked the public to disregard it. NAFDAC said a product cannot be declared fake or unsafe just because its name or photo appears on a social media list.

A warning about fakes of a brand does not mean every item of that brand is fake. It means counterfeiters are copying it. Follow the official alerts of the regulator in your country, and judge the product in your hand by the signs above.

If a food or drink makes you ill, stop eating or drinking it, see a doctor and keep what is left.

Some companies protect their products with anti-counterfeiting methods. You can verify a product protected with Batach with your phone at batach.io/scan.

Who regulates food and drinks in your country

Food is not always regulated by the same agency as medicines. In some countries a food and drugs authority covers both. In others, a bureau of standards or the local council handles food:

• Nigeria: NAFDAC regulates food, drinks, packaged water, medicines and cosmetics. Call 0800-162-3322 or visit nafdac.gov.ng. See what NAFDAC is.
• Ghana: the Food and Drugs Authority regulates food, medicines and cosmetics. Use the complaint form on fdaghana.gov.gh. See our guide to the FDA in Ghana.
• Kenya: KEBS sets and enforces food standards. Call its toll-free line, 1545. Report counterfeits to the Anti-Counterfeit Authority.
• Tanzania: the Tanzania Bureau of Standards has regulated food and cosmetics since July 2019. Call 0800 110 827 or visit tbs.go.tz. Medicines stay with TMDA.
• Uganda: UNBS enforces food standards. Look for the UNBS Quality Mark, and report substandard products on 0800 133 133 or 0800 233 233. Medicines are regulated by the National Drug Authority.
• South Africa: the Department of Health oversees food safety, and environmental health practitioners inspect food businesses. The government asks you to report food safety or labelling concerns to your nearest municipality. The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications covers fish, other seafood and canned meat.

What to do if you think a product is fake

1. Stop using it. Keep the container, what is left of the contents and your receipt.
2. Write down where you got it, the date, the price and the batch number.
3. Report it to the food regulator in your country, listed above.
4. Tell the brand through its official customer care line.

Our guide on how to report fake products in Nigeria explains each Nigerian channel in detail.