Accra, Jan 18, GNA -The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) has said it would destroy the heavily contaminated chicken parts at the Bulk Cold Storage of Sucatrade, importers of the poultry products.
The FDB in statement, copied to the GNA in Accra on Tuesday, said it would not grant Sucatrade’s unreasonable request to repackage the chicken, and that the Board would treat it with all the contempt that it deserves. It said:“FDB will go ahead and destroy the said heavily contaminated consignment of chicken parts averaging about 1,000 cartons”.
The FDB will also like to use this opportunity to ask the general public to disregard and treat with contempt the latest press statement by Sucatrade (Finatrade)”, and described it as irresponsible, diversionary and an attempt to mislead the general public.
It will be recalled that the FDB alerted the public of unwholesome chicken parts belonging to Sucatrade Limited, a subsidiary of Finatrade Group of Companies.
The Board on its routine monitoring activities found that Sucatrade Limited located in Tema, Community One, had unwholesome chicken parts stored in its Bulk Cold Storage Facility.
As indicated in the earlier press release, inspection of the said consignment showed the lumping together of the unwholesome chicken parts and torn cartons in a caked form parked directly on the bare floor and against the walls of the cold room in two large heaps.
According to the FDB the state in which the products were found compromised its safety, which was clearly confirmed by a laboratory analysis (microbiological) on the products.
The test indicated that the chicken parts were heavily contaminated by bacteria such as E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and thermotolerant Coliforms. Food contaminated by E. coli, if consumed could lead to serious food poisoning, which is manifested in diarrhea, vomiting and serious stomach cramp. Staphylococcus aureas will produce an entero-toxin in food contaminated with it, even when such food is cooked.
The toxin would persist and cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal lining of the consumer, causing a disease situation called staphylococcal food poisoning.
The consumer will suffer from nausea, severe vomiting, diarrhea and major stomach cramp.
The thermo tolerant coliforms, which were also detected in the product are bacteria that would withstand heating, this makes the food contaminated by the bacteria even more harmful when cooked and could cause food poisoning when consumed.
The heavy presence of these microorganisms renders the chicken parts unwholesome for human consumption.
The presence of the above mentioned bacteria in the unwholesome chicken parts found in the cold storage facility of Sucatrade (Finatrade) poses a serious danger to public health, the statement said.
“In spite of this danger, Sucatrade went ahead to request the FDB permission to repackage this heavily contaminated consignment of chicken parts for the Ghanaian market for public consumption”.
The FDB said it would continue its monitoring of the operations of all Bulk Cold Storage facilities to ensure that it adhere strictly to good cold storage practice, and gave assurance that it would continue to ensure public health and safety.
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