FDA initiates special market surveillance activity to clamp down fake, contaminated products

The Sunyani office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) responsible for the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions has initiated special market surveillance activity to clamp down on traders engaged in fake, unregistered, and adulterated products.

According to Francisca Patoah Agyarko, a Principal Regulatory Officer at the Office, under the initiative, personnel of the Authority undertook random visits and outreaches to the various markets to also check the manufacturing and expiry dates of cosmetics, food, and drugs.

“This is to help rid the market of fake, unregistered, expiry and adulterated products to protect the public,” she told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Sunyani.

Agyarko said the exercise was necessitated due to the polarized nature of the Ghana-Cote D’Ivoire borders in the region, which was contributing to the smuggling of some unwholesome products in the country.

She urged consumers to remain vigilant and endeavour to check the expiry dates and logos of the FDA whenever they intended to buy products, particularly oil, rice, canned products, and medications.

Agyarko also appealed to the public to provide information about suspected traders engaged in the smuggling of food items to the Authority, saying “we need the collective support of everybody to rid the market of contaminated products”.