There have been several social media posts since someone shared that they discovered that the soy sauce they’ve been cooking with was fake. So, others joined in and started sharing photos of their soy sauce – all fake. From there, people started giving pictorial evidence of other fake products they’d been purchasing and using – body cream, lip balms, fast foods, wine drinks, drugs, body care products and others and others. And the reality just sets in that the majority of what we are using in this country are fake. And what makes it worse: these products are labelled as supposedly registered with the official body entrusted with the duty of assessing and approving them.

While we pray against untimely death, we may be paying for what kills us – unknowingly. The cooking sauce you added to your pasta yesterday might be fake. The meat you ate at that restaurant last week might have been cooked with paracetamol. The wine you had might have been a counterfeit. The drug you’re about to buy to cure food poisoning might be fake. Or that expensive skincare product might just be fake! While, as a country, we find ways to cope with situations by cracking jokes and sharing memes, we may just be laughing our way to our deaths. You don’t know, you might never know, these fake products might be eating something in your kidney or heart. As we laugh about it, we must take individual precautions by reading labels well before making purchases, avoiding stores known to sell fake products, paying attention to everything we purchase and/or consume, checking expiry dates, and eating more homemade meals – basically, minimising our chances of food poisoning. We cannot control the circulation of fake products, but at least, we can pay attention to products we let into our space and body system.