Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu, Minister of Health, says access to enough safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and good health.
He said: ” As we strive to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for Ghana through the Universal Health Coverage Roadmap (2020-2030), we must not lose sight of the importance of ensuring access to safe food that is free from contamination to achieve overall better health outcomes for all people in Ghana.”
The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the National Inter-Sectorial Food Safety Coordination Committee and unveiling of the food safety strategic action plan, on Thursday in Accra.
Mr. Agyeman Manu said in Ghana and all parts of the world, unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances contributed immensely to ill health and in some cases, death.
The Minister said the burden of unsafe food was dire to the health of the population of the world, including Ghana and called for deliberate steps to be taken by the Government and stakeholders to address the menace.
He said the successful implementation of the committee work would change the narrative and break all existing barriers to food safety in Ghana.
The nine-member committee is expected to ensure the coordination and oversight responsibility of all food safety and control activities in the country in collaboration with other stakeholders and hoped that the objectives would be achieved in the next few years.
Mrs Delese Darko, Chief Executive Officer, Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), said Ghana’s crucial food safety concerns over the years spanned from excessive agrochemicals in its food produce to the adulteration of palm oil with Sudan dye amongst others, raising the need for awareness creation on effective food safety measures.
She said Ghana in the last nine years had had about 60 outbreaks of food borne diseases with a little over 1,900 people infected with food poisoning diseases that resulted in 36 deaths.
Mrs Darko said the inauguration of the Committee was necessary, to ensure best practices and safeguard the lives of the citizenry.
Mr. Kwesi Amo-Himbson, Chief Director, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, a Committee Member, said the implementation of the Committee would curb illegalities within the fishing industry to protect the lives of consumers.
“Fish constitutes a very significant percentage of our food nutritional requirement and there was the need to protect what Ghanaians have on the market.”
He added that, “the committee is also to ensure that whatever finally gets to the table of the consumer is healthy and wholesome.”
The National Inter-Sectorial Food Safety Coordinating Committee (NIFSCC) is made up of Chief Directors of the Ministries of Health, Food and Agriculture, National Security, Environment Science, Technology and Innovation, Local Government Decentralisation and Rural Development, Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Trade and Industry, Finance and Economic Planning and the Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are more than 250 illnesses caused by unsafe food and further estimated that about 600 million people become ill each year after eating unsafe food, resulting in 420,000 deaths globally.