Wenchi, (B/R), Nov. 16, GNA – The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has urged the public to prioritise their health, what they eat, and buy food and canned products from vendors and shops certified by the Authority.
Mrs Francisca Patoah Gyarko, the Acting Bono Regional Head of the FDA, gave the advice indicating that food borne diseases had become a global health concern.
She said statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that more than 420,000 people die globally from food borne diseases every year.
The deaths are reported among the 600,000 who came into contact with contaminated food around the world every year.
Mrs Gyarko was speaking at a sensitization forum on its “One Consumer, One Officer campaign,” held at Wenchi in the Bono Region on the theme “you are what you eat, no grace period after date of expiry.”
It was attended by market women, environmental health officers, sanitation guards, and traditional authorities and aimed at sensitization the public on food safety, ahead of the Christmas festivities.
Mrs Gyarko said the Authority had intensified public sensitization on food safety, saying very soon it would undertake enforcement, apprehend, and prosecute food vendors, caterers, and other food establishments without certification.
She therefore called on event organisers to support the campaign by ensuring that they did not engaged caterers, food vendors and food service establishments operating without FDA and environmental health certifications.
Mrs Gyarko said caterers and food vendors with certification highly exposed consumers to typhoid, hepatitis, and other related diseases, and therefore urged consumers to ensure that they bought consumables from certified establishments.
She also entreated shop owners to desist from selling expired food or canned products, saying such practice remained an offence under the Public Health Act 851 (Act 2012) and culprits would be prosecuted too.
Mrs Abenaa Ayisaa Domfeh, the Head of Enforcement Unit at the Authority cautioned market women to also refrain from exposing food and canned products to direct sunlight.
Nana Amofa Damoah Kuasa II, the Ankobeahene (sub-chief) of the Wenchi Traditional Area called on the Authority to intensify monitoring to rid-off unwholesome food products from the market.
GNA