Food and Drugs Board is 10 years old

Sunyani, Sept 15, GNA - The Food and Drugs Board has appealed to the mass media to help in developing and sustaining a system of quality assurance for the safety, quality and efficacy of products in the country.

Mr. Joseph Yaw-Bernie Bennie, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo zonal officer of the Board, said public health and safety were "the hinges upon which the door for regulation opens and closes" and thus it was the collective responsibility of all to support the Board.

He was addressing a press conference to launch the 10th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Board under the theme, Championing Excellence, Safeguarding Public health and Safety: Our Collective Responsibility".

Mr. Bennie said the control and product promotion and advertisement remained "a horn in the flesh" of the Board, and that although advertisement constituted a major source of revenue for most media houses, "consumer health and safety are not sub-sets of revenue generation".

"The Board will continue to dialogue with stakeholders in the communication industry and take stiffer regulatory measures to ensure that information transmitted through advertisement are accurate and consumer-friendly", he said.

He said the Food and Drugs Law, PNDC L305B, had limitations and that attempts had been made by the introduction of key provisions in the Food and Drugs Bill that was being fine-tuned by legal experts. Mr. Bennie said the Board's inadequate staff strength made effective implementation and enforcement of regulatory mandates difficult and the low salaries of the Board's staff, as compared to other staff under the Ministry of Health, had made it difficult to attract qualified persons.

Mr. Bennie said the Board's collaboration with state institutions such as the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, the police, the local government system, Environmental Protection Agency and the Ghana Standards Board had not been effectively cohesive "due to perceived divergent interests and turf-protectionism".

He said the challenge posed by fake or counterfeit medicine remained a worrisome situation that had been made worse by the rather unfortunate and unprofessional conduct of some professionals. "The country has a long way to go as far as the proper handling of food offered for sale is concerned. The FDB would continue in its training of street-food vendors in basic food hygiene and educate them about the dangers of adulterating food with unapproved additives." He said by 2015 the Board would be operating offices in all the 10 regions and in some districts, by which time its operational structure would have been transformed along the lines of specialized centres as pertained in the United States.

Mr. Emmanuel Fofie, a retired Chief Pharmacist, said the media had a bigger role to collaborate with the Board in sensitising the people on the need for safe food and drugs. He said there was a need for media representation on the Board that needed the support of all to operate effectively. 15 Sept 07