By Emmanuel Akayeti
Some provision shop owners often take advantage of the season and devise means of luring consumers into buying and consuming unwholesome products.
As a result, the FDA has issued a warning to consumers to be cautious when making holiday purchases.
The Upper East Regional Head of Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Sabastian Mawuli Hotor, who spoke with Emmanuel Akayeti in Bolgatanga, said vigilance is the responsibility of consumers.
”It’s a festive season and there is the tendency that some unscrupulous people may want to take advantage and push some unwholesome products, which FDA cannot guarantee their safety on to the market and in the hast of consumers, may end buying without knowing,” Mr. Hotor noted.
”Consumers should be vigilant and always check expiry dates of all products before purchasing. Nonliterates should let their children guide them in every purchase they in tend to do.”
On the other hand, he added, ”It’s not often good to buy products that are labeled in a foreign language.”
“If you don’t understand the instructions written on the said product, what is the guarantee of safety?” Mr. Hotor reiterated.
He warned the youth, in particular, about the consumption (smoking) of shisha, which is invading markets at an alarming rate and is very popular among the youth. Mr. Hotor explained that shisha is a flat-bottomed glass device, usually with water under the bottom, but these days the water is often mixed with either Indian hemp (Weed), alcohol, or other hard drugs, so it is no longer water but a hard substance concoction.
Mr. Hotor said at the top of the device is a provision for charcoal, where the shisha is applied to burn to produce a smock, and with a pipe-like device for smocking, the smock has to pass through the hard substance concoction for one to smock. Smocking, he lamented, is more injurious than tobacco.
