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Opinions of Friday, 1 December 2023

Columnist: Ebenezer Denzel Amanor, Contributor

Maggi Cube: The famous poison quickly making Africans orphans and as addictive as smoking, alcohol

The Maggi Cube was created by Julius Maggi for poor people who could not afford fish, meat The Maggi Cube was created by Julius Maggi for poor people who could not afford fish, meat

A major health concern has been raised about some products on the Ghanaian market, one of which has been described by experts as a famous poison that reduces brain capacity.

Israel Mensah Gota, in a video shared on the Goodliving Series on Surveillance Ghana TV on YouTube, has described the Maggi cube as a dangerous product that is taking many people to their early graves.

What you need to know about the history of the product and its effects:

The following details are made available via Surveillance Ghana

It was created in 1886 by the Swiss Julius Maggi for poor workers who had difficult social situations and did not eat properly because meat and fish were very expensive. In order to provide the synthetic taste of fish and meat to these poor Europeans, Julius Maggi imposed the Maggi cubes with its famous red and yellow colours on the packaging.

In 1884, after the Berlin Conference, colonisers were encouraged export large numbers of this popular poison to their colonies, which were mostly in Africa.

Businessman, Julius Maggi thought that if there were people who could not buy meat or fish in Europe, it would be worse in Africa, so he exported and ingeniously launched his advertising with the yellow and red colours that competed with the red and yellow colours of another product; the sugar-laden Coca-Cola brand at the time.

He succeeded because Maggi Cube products can be kept longer, at high temperatures, and with the possibility of giving synthetic meat or fish taste whenever used.

As early as 1910 and to this day, Africans begun, and continue to put it into every dish, even when grinding pepper, pies, and other flour products.

More than a 100 million cubes are sold everyday throughout Africa to such an extent that, to avoid import problems, the Swiss have created 11 factories on the continent, despite the public health risk.

Maggi consists of over 40% salt, mostly the highly poisonous monosodium glutamate.

Consuming the Maggi Cube everyday is akin to increasing cardiovascular disease, which brings on erectile dysfunction, hypertension, diabetes, heart attack and especially, cerebrovascular attack, popular called stroke.

Sneakily and unmistakably, the Maggi Cube is one of the primary causes of stroke in Africa and yet, we continue to consume it. Like smoking and alcohol, it is very addictive.

There are millions of homes that cannot do without its taste; the killer taste. So, let’s reduce the use of this and resort to our local spices.