Tema-Ghana, Oct. 03, – Don’t buy foodstuffs displayed on the bear grounds for sale; they may be contaminated with faecal matter or any other bacteria, Mr. Samuel Atuahene Antwi, a nutritionist at the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate, has revealed and warned consumers.
He noted that it is unethical, unhygienic, and against the norms of public safety to display foodstuffs on the ground. “The consuming public is being exposed to germs that they carry from the market to their homes”.
Mr. Antwi was speaking at the weekly “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy
The Ghana News Agency’s Tema Regional Office developed the public health advocacy platform “Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility” to investigate the components of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, convincing, and promoting.
The nutritionist at the Tema Metro Health Directorate spoke about “Food Spoilage and How to Avoid It.” As part of food safety protocols, people should wash any foodstuffs they buy from the market very thoroughly at home before they put them in the kitchen to avoid food contamination.
“Wash your yam, cocoyam, plantains, tomatoes, garden eggs, onions, and any other foodstuffs before you introduce them to your kitchen.
Mr. Antwi also called on traders to discard the ancient trading method of displaying foodstuffs on the floor or on a jute sack: “Let’s stop selling germs to the consuming public”.
He also recommended that canned products also be washed under running water, as some shops have rodents and cockroaches that might have left faeces on the surfaces of the can.
He also called on the environmental health officers to enforce sanitation and food safety bylaws.
Explaining some of the production value chains through which food could be contaminated, Mr. Antwi identified four: the production stage, which means growing the plants, harvesting or raising the animals used for food, and the processing stage, which means changing plants or animals into what we recognise and buy as food.
He explained that the distribution stage is another production value chain that could get food contaminated, which is getting food from the farm or processing plant to the consumer or a food service facility like a restaurant, cafeteria, or hospital kitchen.
Mr. Antwi noted that preparation, or the final stage that is getting the food ready to eat, “may occur in the kitchen of a restaurant, home, or institution”.
The nutritionists at the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate appealed to all stakeholders to be vigilant throughout the production value chain to reduce incidents of contamination and food poising, which may lead to fatalities.
He said contamination can occur at any point along the chain—during production, processing, distribution, or preparation.
The nutritionist explained that “if a food worker stays on the job while sick and does not wash his or her hands carefully after using the toilet, the food worker can spread germs by touching food.
“If a cook uses a cutting board or knife to cut raw chicken and then uses the same knife or cutting board without washing it to slice tomatoes for a salad, the tomatoes can be contaminated by germs from the chicken.
“Contamination can occur in a refrigerator if meat juices get on items that will be eaten raw”.
