Shops, supermarkets owners schooled on fake products

Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, Central Regional Minister, has tasked officials of Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to intensify their random checks and monitoring of shops to rid them of unregistered, fake and expired products.

This, he said would help keep shop owners on their toes.

Mr Quansah said this during a day’s forum organised by the Regional Office of the FDA for about 60 shops and supermarket owners from the Cape Coast Metropolis and its environ in Cape Coast.

The forum was to among others educate the shop and super market owners on the crusade against unregistered, fake and expired food products as well as to inform them about the acquisition of a device by FDA to detect expired goods on the shelves.

He reminded them of the health implications of using expired and fake products and urged them to desist from the practice.

The Minister urged them to clear their shops of expired products, saying, ignorance of the law is not an excuse and that the FDA would deal with those who flout the law.

Mr Kingsley Nsiah-Poku, Regional Director of FDA said his outfit decided to convene the meeting following the perennial proliferation of unregistered, expired and fake food products found on the shelves of supermarkets in the metropolis.

The Authority, he noted has been mandated by law to safeguard public health and safety and would not countenance any acts that would be in contravention of the foods and drugs law.

It was in this direction that the Authority with the support of the European Union had acquired tablet devices to help fight the nuisance of fake and unregistered food products on the Ghanaians market to deal with unscrupulous people who sometimes deliberately sell expired as well as unsafe products.

The participants were taken through the Public Health Act 851, 2012, which mandates the FDA as a regulatory body, the relevant portions of the law and penalties for flouting any sections of the law.