From Ishaque Agyei
The Central Regional Minister, Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, on Friday charged the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to embark on frequent random monitoring and checks of malls, shops and supermarkets to check unregistered and expired products.
He said the FDA has a huge responsibility in ensuring that there is sanity on the markets, shops and supermarkets, by making sure that unwholesome products are not sold out to innocent consumers.
The Minister, who was speaking at the forum organised by the FDA for owners and managers of shops and supermarkets within the Cape Coast Metropolis, urged everyone to support and cooperate with the FDA in executing its constitutional mandate.
He advised the owners and managers of shops and supermarkets gathered to eschew stocking and selling fake and unregistered products, as well as bloated cans and unwholesome items to customers.
On his part, the Central Regional Director of the FDA, Mr. Kingsley Nsiah-Poku, stressed that the authority is mandated by law to safeguard public health and safety, adding that the FDA is not happy about the perennial proliferation of unregistered, fake and expired food products found on the shelves of most supermarkets.
He revealed that the European Union, after monitoring and observing these activities by some owners and managers of shops and supermarkets in the country, had donated some device tablets to help fight the nuisance on the Ghanaian markets.
Mr. Nsiah-Poku stressed that it is not the intention of the FDA to stifle any business, but to ensure that the few unscrupulous people who deliberately sell expired and unregistered products are brought to book, and also face the full rigours of the law.
He reiterated that the FDA does not want to arrest anyone and that is why it deems it imperative to let owners and managers of shops and supermarkets to know and anticipate an impending crusade to rid the markets off non-conforming products nation-wide, he added.
Mr. Nsiah-Poku also revealed that his outfit had information about some supermarkets which are defacing date markings on expired products, as well as transferring expired products into new containers, and, therefore, warned them to stop that.