The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has said it is prosecuting offenders of food safety regulations contrary to perceptions that portray the authority as a toothless ‘bull dog’. Aside prosecution, the authority had seized or detained a number of products, some of which are earmarked for destruction.
The agency mandated with the responsibility of ensuring that food and drugs manufactured within Ghana and also imported for sale in the country pass the safety test had been receiving public bashing for lacking the will power to crack the whip on manufacturers and importers of unwholesome products on the market.
But Head of Medical Devices, Cosmetics and Household Chemicals Enforcement Department of the FDA, Geoffrey Arthur in an exclusive interview with XYZ News has explained that the authority has adopted what he called a self regulatory approach in the enforcement of its regulations. With this approach, the FDA has been engaging its stakeholders with the aim of empowering them to help reduce the incident of unwholesome products getting unto the market.
One of such engagement with cosmetic and household chemical importers, distributors and retailers was at the Makola market here in Accra were the FDA said it is alarmed by the quantum of unregistered products especially cosmetics which were in violation of section 118 of the Public Health Act, Act 851, 2002.
Mr Arthur who is responsible for Cosmetics and Household Chemicals Enforcement at the FDA reiterated that his outfit is strengthening its systems to better monitor the market but stressed they are not interested in killing businesses.
“We’re also not the type of organisation who would like to kill businesses, so there are educative measures in place that we encourage people that want to properly register their products; we guide and we guard them; give them the kind of training and orientation that is required so that their products are good standing just in the interest of public health and safety”, Geoffrey Arthur said.
Mr Arthur admitted that, FDAs control mechanisms cannot be perfect and that certain fake products may elude them but there is a responsibility on the part of traders to reject unregistered products from bulk suppliers. According to him, once traders reduce the demand for unwholesome products, the supply will also reduce.
By:Joe Bright Nyarko
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