Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, has called on tourism operators, especially managers of star-rated hotels and restaurants to consider putting Ghanaian foods on their menus.

She said the public was increasingly getting attracted to local Ghanaian cuisines and there was the need to help promote them.

“I must mention that doing so will also ensure that we keep our hardworking farmers constantly in business and also provide security for Ghanaian businesses,” she said at launch of the Health and Critical Analysis Training Programme by the Flair Training Institute in Accra.

According to the Minister, “The handling of food safety issues in the hospitality industry is critical to the survival of the sector, as various unhygienic foods and other forms of contamination of daily consumables have resulted in a number of health hazards around the world.”

Mrs Ofosu-Adjare commended Flair Catering for its initiative, noting that if concerns of food safety were not addressed in what she called “a coherent, consistent and collaborative manner”, the livelihoods of vendors and the health of consumers would continue to be at risk.

She was full of praise for the enormous contribution the school had made towards improving service standards in the tourism industry, and the offering of employable skills and opportunities to the youth and women since its establishment.

She reiterated that her Ministry, through the Ghana Tourism Authority, would clamp down on operators in the industry who were not conforming to standards, including that of food safety.

Executive Chairman of Flair Catering Institute, Mrs Barbara Baeta Bentsi Enchill, said her passion for the introduction of the programme was motivated by her acknowledgement of the little or no concern given to food safety issues. She said the project, funded by the Social Development Fund, was a collaborative one with Accra Polytechnic.