• Mr Lawrence Ansah-Brew (first right), the Gomoa East Environmental Health Officer, and other officials of the department standing beside some of the expired products.

Expired food products confiscated, destroyed in Gomoa East

Mar - 18 - 2015 , 05:27

The Environmental Health and Sanitation Department in the Gomoa East District has embarked on an exercise to confiscate and destroy expired consumables on shelves in shops in the district.

The consumables included medicines, alcoholic drinks, as well as confectionery whose sell-by dates were between 2010 and 2014.

The seize-and-destroy exercise, which lasted over a week, took place at Budumburam, Fetteh Kakraba, Nyanyano Kakraba and Nyanyano as well as other towns in the district.

Environmental officer

The District Environmental Health Officer, Mr Lawrence Ansah-Brew, told the Daily Graphic that the exercise was initiated following reports his outfit received from the St. Gregory Hospital at Budumburam and other health facilities in the district on the increasing rate of food poisoning.

He said among its responsibilities, the unit had the mandate to ensure that food consumed in the district was safe. Under the circumstances, he said, the unit had to impound expired products on the market.

He said eight shop owners who were found to be engaging in the reprehensible act had been arraigned and fined GH¢600 each.

Mr Ansah-Brew said the District Environmental Health Department would continue the exercise until all expired goods in shops were removed.

Measures

He said the department would soon organise community sensitisation workshops as a means of educating the public to be cautious when buying goods from shops.

He urged the public to always endeavour to check the manufacturing and expiry dates of products they bought in shops in order to avoid being poisoned.

Mr Ansah-Brew further encouraged the public to report shop owners who sold expired products to his department for the necessary action to be taken.