The Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada, has bemoaned the state of food safety and security in the country.

According to him, although the Marwako food poisoning incident which led to the hospitalization of some patrons is not peculiar, the poor regulatory practices of the Food and Drugs Authority hampers the maintenance of high food safety standards in the country. He explained that the failure of the FDA is that it reneges in seeing to it that food vendors adhere to strict hygiene protocols among others.

“Look, food safety in our country is nothing you want to write home about. We are living merely at the mercy of our own immune system. I am yet to see people really rise up to food safety standards, but there are various institutions who are all tasked to ensure that food safety is guaranteed.”
Nana Yaw Akwada

Mr Akwada revealed that due to the absence of regular inspections and general regulation of the food hospitality industry, most players in the industry have resorted to self-regulation. This, he noted, is not the safest way to ensure consumers are served wholesome food.

“As to whether these institutions are working or that the entities themselves who are self-regulating… as far as we’re concerned we believe largely and we have observed largely that these institutions are not as active or are working as they ought to…”
Nana Yaw Akwada

The Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety expressed that in any industrial space, self-regulation “will not be or should not be enough to regulate the space for us as far as food safety is concerned”.

Inspection of restaurants in Ghana

On his part, the President of the Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike Jnr, revealed that hotels which operate restaurants and are registered with the Ghana Tourism Authority are inspected once a year. He opined that the hotels are given prior notice to prepare towards the inspection “so you’d expect that every hotel will be at its best when they expect the Food and Drugs Authority”.

“What we usually don’t get is those random inspection that could take people off-guard or to take the hotels off-guard to see what they do when they’re not expecting the FDAs.
Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike Jnr

Dr Nyamike highlighted that the good thing about that annual inspection is that it’s not just related to the food, but they also have other requirements. He explained that officials expect to see some regular fumigation and not just any fumigation at all, “but fumigation by a company that has duly registered with the Environmental Protection Agency”.

“And then also, they also expect that you also have that EPA license itself. Then they look at your records, the source of your food ingredients, the hygiene certificates or the public health certificates obtained by your teaching staff from the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and then they also require that you have your Standard Operating Practice or Procedures.”
Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike Jnr