The Upper East Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority, FDA, in accordance with the Public Health Act 2012, ACT 851 has destroyed quantities of unwholesome products to safeguard public health in the region.
The destroyed items valued at 203,181 cedis include tomato paste, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, herbal medicines, and cosmetics. The products were seized from provision shops, over the counter chemical seller’s shops, pharmacies, ware houses, herbal clinics, cosmetics shops and the open market across fifteen districts in the Upper East Region.
Speaking with Radio Ghana, the Upper East Regional Director of the FDA, Sebastian Mawuli Hotor, called on consumers to be bold to expose those dealing in unwholesome items by reporting them to the Authority for immediate action.
He cautioned persons selling expired products to stop because when caught, sanctions or jail term awaits them depending on the quantity of the expired products on the market.
Mr. Mawuli Hotor revealed that the FDA has so far registered more than 400 hand sanitizer manufacturing entities nationwide. He said a number of companies have also been registered to produce face masks to stem spread of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, another worrying situation Radio Ghana news team observed at the dumping site in Sherigu, a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality was that children numbering about twenty were seen walking bear-footed and have stationed themselves there ready to pounce on any refuse dumped at the site to pick out aluminum products or any expired product and send it home.
These children have access to the dumping site because the fencing wire of the site was stolen by some unscrupulous people in the Sherigu Community decades ago. None of these children were seen wearing face masks. Efforts by leadership of the FDA, the Police and the Environmental and Sanitation agency who witnessed the exercise to talk to the children to desist from such practices proved futile.
