Foreign cuisine can be hazardous

Accra, Dec. 4, GNA - Mr Alfred Bakai Amoatey, the Ghana Education Service Director for Yilo Krobo District, on Sunday expressed disgust at the increasing taste for foreign cuisine by Ghanaians.

"The introduction of foreign delicacies and spices into the Ghanaian culinary sector has adverse effect on our health as it is alien to our genetic system," Mr Amoatey said at the 16th graduation of the EKGS Institute in Accra.

The ceremony, which had 120 students graduating, was on the theme: "Enhancing the Tourism Sector the Role of the Culinary Industry." Mr Amoatey therefore tasked the local culinary industry to promote traditional food in the hospitality industry because "tourists will also be interested in experimenting with our local food."

Mrs Efua Goode-Arthur, the Director of the Institute, said the tourism industry could become the backbone of the economy with the training of personnel in the industry.

She called for the inculcation of strict African values and ideas into hospitality professionals to give the industry unique features that could attract tourists.

Mrs Goode-Arthur suggested addition of traditional and local values into service delivery both in cuisine and dress code to attract tourists to experience something unique.

"This will be selling Ghana's brand name as an exotic and special tourist destination."

Mrs Goode-Arthur reiterated call on the government to extend credit facilities to hospitality institutions in the private sector to enable them to expand their facilities and train more people. "Banks and other financial institutions can lend a helping hand by developing products like educational loans for students in the catering industry."

Mrs. Goode-Arthur also appealed to district assemblies to sponsor students to study catering to reduce the unemployment rate in the districts.