FDA confiscates expired medicines and foods

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has seized over a metric ton of expired goods including medicines, beverages and baby foods from various shops in Koforidua and some districts across the region.

This was part of an operation to ensure the safety of the public during the Easter festivities.

The seized items included antibiotics and analgesics, baby foods such as Aptamil, cerelac, biscuits, energy drinks, lucozade, margarines, dairy products, sanitary pads and many others from pharmacy shops, supermarkets, and filling station marts and from the markets few days to the Easter Holidays.

This is the second time in less than four months that the FDA had raided the markets and seized expired products from market shelves and pharmacies in Koforidua and the district capitals in the Eastern Region.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Samuel Kwakye, Regional Director of the FDA, said expired goods were dangerous to the health of consumers and urged the public to check the manufacturing and the expiry dates on products before purchasing them.

He said the kind of products found expired such as Aptamil which is a breast milk substitute for babies and other antibiotic drugs was alarming if any of the expired ones had been bought by the unsuspecting public.

The Regional Director warned the public to always check the expiry dates and report any adverse findings to the FDA because sometimes the expiry dates were tampered with.

On sanctions to be applied, he explained that per the law shop owners whose expired goods were seized were fined for the first offence and this is in addition to seizing all the goods.

Mr Kwakye advised pharmacy shop owners to ensure that people they employed to work there in their absence do regular checks on the products so as to remove expired ones from the shelves.