The Consumer Advocacy Centre has taken notice of the position of Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) regarding the reported case of food poisoning leading to six deaths in the Volta Region.
Consumers of corn products woke up on the morning of Monday, 5th March, 2018, to the shocking story of six people who have died in Akakpokope, a village near Sogakope, in the Volta Region, after eating banku and akple prepared with a particular corn dough, in the weekend prior.
A press statement released by the Consumer Advocacy Center signed by its president, Prof. Goski Alabi regretted that “Ten (10) good days after such a major incident, the FDA has only visited Akakpokope, just to collect samples of the poisonous corn dough. Using ten days to collect samples and not being able to issue a public alert or produce the first stage of the test results from the laboratory, in order to guide consumers, is not good enough”.
“As the local chapter of Consumer International, we find it unacceptable,” it added.
It pointed out that the FDA can be more responsive in such matters with a rapid alert system in such suspected case of food poisoning.
“Consumer Advocacy Center calls on the FDA to ramp up it’s Rapid Response strategies and be able to resolve such cases within a turn around time”.
The statement further demand that the FDA issues a public alert in order to inform the general public and in particular consumers of corn dough, to allay the fears of the general public.
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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana