Food and Drugs Board sensitizes Tema food vendors

Tema, Sept 30, GNA - The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) on

Wednesday ended a series of food safety programmes in the Tema Metropolis

with a call on traditional caterers to observe basic food hygiene.

The last programme that was held at the Tema Community Nine Market

on Wednesday was the third in a series organized by the Board in the Tema

Metropolis and Ashaiman Municipality.
It aimed at sensitizing traditional caterers, vegetable, foodstuffs and fruit

sellers on principles in the selection and purchase of food items as well as

techniques to be employed during the transportation, storage and preservation of

those items.
The programme was on the topic: “Street Food Safety.”

Miss Maria Lovelace-Johnson, Head of the Food Safety Management

Unit at the FDB, said her outfit had realized that majority of food vendors were

either illiterates or semi-illiterates.
She said in the near future food vendors would be properly educated,

examined medically and issued with certificates, aprons and other things by the

FDB for identification.
Ms Lovelace-Johnson said consumers would then be able to identify

safe food from contaminated ones, adding,”at least one person from every

household in Ghana eats from outside their homes daily.”

On some basic hygiene tips, she said caterers must desist from the use

of artificial nails and painting of their fingers with nail polish, explaining that germs

could hide in the nails without notice, and transferred into food.

GNA