The Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA) has countered claims of the probable transmission of the novel coronavirus through poultry products.
Brazil, a major foreign supplier of poultry products to Ghana, has reportedly recorded cases where poultry meat has been affected by COVID-19.
As such, on August 14, 2020, it was reported that the Philippines imposed a temporary ban on poultry meat imports from Brazil after two cities in China allegedly found traces of the new coronavirus in cargoes of imported frozen food, including chicken wings from the South American country.
The fear of a probable transmission from animal to human has caused Ghanaians to panic.
Speaking for the Authority, the Acting Head of Food Division of the FDA assured the public that science does not support the speculations as COVID has not been proven to be a food borne disease.
Roderick Daddey-Adjei in an interview stated that there is no cause for alarm as the virus thrives in living organisms and went on to encourage people to continue eating meat.
“There is what we call food borne diseases and coronavirus, as we know, is not transmitted that way. It is a scientific fact that has been made known by WHO. They may exist sometimes on packaging materials and that is why we insist on the need for everybody to constantly wash their hands. Remember that the virus as it is, needs a living organism. So, if you are talking about food the main scientific fact now is that it is not a food-borne disease and so people should go ahead and eat their meat”.
According to him, activities at the ports are still ongoing and nothing has changed as Ghana is still receiving imports from Brazil.
“We haven’t banned any meat coming from Brazil, Ghana has not taken any such step. If you go to the ports it is the same operations that we have been doing with the necessary protocols in place.”
Meanwhile, the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association recently urged Ghanaians to consume more of locally produced poultry products as against the scare of the novel coronavirus in Brazil’s poultry sector.
For some time now, local poultry farmers have been advocating for government to invest in the sector to enable local poultry farmers increase their market share from the current ten percent to about sixty percent.
The current news circulating adds weight and has made it more crucial for government to consider it amidst the increasingly disturbing effects of COVID-19 on Brazil.
Currently, Ghanaians consume only 10 percent of local poultry as compared to the more patronized foreign products which make up 90 percent of total consumption.
