Street food vendors across the country will soon be ask to comply with a National Food Safety Response Plan to among others promote practice of food safety standards to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks and diseases.
Professor Anna Lartey, a former director of nutrition, Food and Agriculture Organisation, (FAO) delivering her keynote address at an event to commemorate the World Food Safety Day on Monday June 7, 2021 under the theme ‘Safe Food now for a health tomorrow’ emphasized the need to ensure that street food vendors acquire knowledge in basic food safety to prevent food contamination.
Owing to the fact that there is a proliferation of street food vendors because most people eat away from home due to work pressures and other reasons, Prof Anna Lartey said “there is a need for food safety guidelines for street vendors with certification”
In light of this, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) have adopted a National Food Safety Response Plan to provide the national blue print that will guide a national response approach to food safety emergencies.
The new policy will provide basic training for food systems actors on the food safety aspect of their trade, improve infrastructure and proper food storage facilities for foods, educate consumers on basics of food safety, and what to look out for when buying food.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foods and Drugs Authority (FDA) Mrs. Delese Mimi Darko said “covid-19 disease outbreak has made it a lot more compelling for strict adherence to food safety standards in order to help boost the immune system and prevent disease transmission”.
She added that regular hand washing is important especially before food preparation and eating.
The Food Safety Policy was developed on the basis of a Food Safety Situational Analysis Conducted in 2010 with technical and financial support from WHO. Following the completion of the Situational Analysis WHO and FAO supported the development of the policy with a multi-sector stakeholder technical committee and a team of consultants. The goal of the Nation Food Safety Policy is to bring coordination into the regulation of food safety and define the role of stakeholders to ensure public health and facilitate trade in food. Hence the policy outlines the policy objectives and measures and strategies to achieve the objectives. These include: Establish a mechanism for coordinating food safety related activities in Ghana by ensuring harmonization and institutional cooperation among relevant stakeholders.
