By Emelia B. Addae
Koforidua, August 12, GNA – The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) office in the Eastern Region seized and disposed of 11 tonnes of non-conforming products deemed hazardous to public health in the second quarter of 2022.
Regulatory action forms part of the FDA’s core mandate to protect public health and ensure consumer safety at all times.
Mr Joseph Gyau Yeboah, Senior Regulatory Officer, FDA Enforcement Unit in Koforidua, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, said the confiscation and destruction exercise of the unwholesome items was to help sanitise the local market environment and to also warn the public about unsafe products.
The non-conforming products accounted for 11 tonnes and included allopathic medicines, medical devices, herbal products, household chemicals, cosmetics, food products, and homoeopathic medicines, he added.
He said the products were substandard, fake, unregistered, labelled non-conformance, adulterated, expired products from retail and wholesale outlets in various pharmaceutical and other food retail outlets.
“The regulatory action brought in voluntary request of large expired medicines from Eastern Regional Medical stores and such medicines collected from regional medical stores were from 17 health facilities in the region,” he added.
“We also have post-market surveillance which is routinely conducted in the wholesale, manufacturing, and retail outlets to monitor the food and drug chains for safety of the regulated products,” he added.
According to the FDA, the non-conforming products were burnt, and some were crushed with excavators and buried at the Akwadum dumping site under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Health Department, Ghana Audit Service, Waste Land Fills and FDA.
Mr Yehoah explained that the FDA conducts pre-and post-surveillance on regulated products, in which the products are examined, tested, and labelled in accordance with FDA guidelines.
He advised wholesale and retail managers to check their products on a regular basis and remove expired and non-conforming items from the shelves, while consumers should avoid purchasing products without FDA registration numbers.
GNA