The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), has issued an alert to consumers to desist from buying tomato powder on the various markets.
One person has been arrested for selling such substance which allegedly contains corn and powdered cassava, known as ‘Konkonte’ and a red substance instead of tomatoes.
Citi News’ visit to the Nima Market found out the product is still secretly being sold.
The market women were seen busily selling their stuff under their sheds. Some of them however denied selling such product at the market.
“No one sells some here. I understand it contains a harmful substance. Go round and ask maybe you’ll find some. The market is very large, I’m sure you’ll definitely get some,” one of them told Citi News.
Another one also said “we don’t have some here and I don’t know where you can find some.”
Meanwhile, Citi News subsequently discovered a basin full of the product being sold at the market.
FDA caution
The FDA however said it is on the ground to flash out the distributors of such unwholesome product and cautioned consumers to stay away from it.
The Head of FDA’s Food Safety Management Department, Maria Aba Lovelace-Johnson, assured Citi News that all persons found selling the product will be arrested.
“The FDA found out that, there was a product on the market called tomato powder. So we went ahead to do some analysis on the product and we were amazed to find out that there was no tomato in the product. It is really not genuine. Just some colour added to maize and Kokonte.”
“After three months of public education, we decided to enforce the law. We got the main producer, distributor and retailer. We have made that arrest and we are going to make more arrest. This is just to caution the public that we are serious and we mean what we say,” he added.
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By: Zoe Abu-Baidoo/citifmonline.com/Ghana