Members of the panel during a discussion on the 'illegal' importation
The heads of Food and Drugs Authority, Veterinary services and Customs Laboratories at the Port of Tema have admitted, that there exist lack of proper coordination through information sharing among them, which is a possible and major cause of the growing concern of unwholesome food products making their way into the country and eventually been consumed by the citizenry.
The admission comes on the back of three containers containing contaminated gizzard which were cleared from the port by Perez Foods Limited in February 2019.
According to the Veterinary services it received an alert from the Brazilian embassy on 27th February, 2019 but received a confirmation letter from the embassy on 3rd April 2019.
The head of veterinary division of Port of Tema, Dr. Stephen Bonnah explained the actions he took when he first got the alert.
“A letter was sent to GPHA, GRA and National Security indicating that there is a container containing contaminated gizzard so they should retain it,” he clarified.
Solomon Agampim, head of Import and Export Control Depatment of FDA, revealed when the first containers were cleared from the Port.
“On 9th January, 2019 the first container was cleared. On the 28th January 2019 the second container was also cleared and on the 12th of February 2019 the third container was cleared,” he disclosed.
Speaking on Eye on Port’s live interactive programme, the Head of Import and Export Control Department at FDA, Solomon Agampim and the head of veterinary regulatory division at the Port of Tema, Dr. Stephen Bonnah admitted that lack of information sharing could hamper their work.
The Food and Drugs Authority, Customs division of the GRA and the Veterinary services explained their respective roles played in releasing the infested gizzard episode.
The Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Customs Laboratory at Tema Port, Joseph Eric Owusu said his outfit allowed for the clearance of the containers from the port because of the green light it received from the FDA.
He said there was no need for customs to question or re-examine the approvals given by the FDA.
“After physical inspection, the authority that has to give us greenlight in this context is FDA. After FDA gives us the greenlight then we have to release the containers,” he stated.
However, the Head of Import and Export Control Department at the Food and Drugs Authority, Solomon Agampim said his outfit did not err in giving customs the green light because the cargo had passed compliance stage, which meant that all requirements had been satisfied.
“Compliance cannot be given without import permit. Customs cannot do compliance for an FDA products if we have not given them a permit. So why did Customs give compliance to these infested containers without an import permit. I should rather ask him,” he stated.
But could this seeming tension between the FDA and Veterinary services be the reason why the later didn't share the alert from the Brazilian Embassy on the contaminated gizzard with the former.
According to Solomon Agampim, after physical inspection of the three containers there were no traces of contamination, hence, their approval for its release in the joint inspection management information system platform.
“When these containers came we inspected them and they were physically okay. The FDA also inspected the physical state and it was excellent. The FDA has the copy here to prove. There was no deterioration and other physical signs of spoilage,” he stated.
He also admitted that none of the three containers were sampled for analysis.
“We have a mini lab and randomly we take sampling there but there was no sampling for these containers. Like we usually do; we take sampling from every fifth container. It is risky to take sampling from each container. None of these three containers was the fifth or tenth container so we did not take sampling from them,” he disclosed.
Dr. Stephen Bonnah, Head of Veterinary Regulatory Division at the Port of Tema said after it had been detected later that the containers were infested, he outfit stormed the premises of the importers who confirmed that the infested gizzard had already been sold out.
“We got to know the importers so we wrote to them and traced back. According to the importers the contaminated gizzard were already sold and were no longer in their stock,” he stated.
On the issue of the fourth contaminated container, the Chief Revenue Officer in charge of Customs Laboratory at Tema Port, Joseph Eric Owusu also revealed that the importer after paying all his duties was informed by the supplier that the goods are contaminated, hence, did not proceed to clear it.
“The importer received an alert from the supplier that the container containing the gizzard is infested with salmonella. When you read the full text of the alert it appears that the supplier was not certain. It was after the importer had paid and was to proceed that he received the alert and had to hold on,” he disclosed.
The agencies also admitted that though the importers of the containers of the infested gizzards possessed Veterinary Health Certificates from the country of origin, they didn't have import permit from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture which meant that, ordinarily the containers shouldn't have gone through compliance let alone have them released by Customs.
In the end all the agencies could not explain why an importer who doesn't have import permits can still have his or her cargo pass compliance and subsequently released into the country.
