Correspondence from Eastern Region

It’s been observed that most consumers of pre-packaged foods fail to check the expiry date or other relevant information on the products that they consume.

GhanaWeb’s interactions with consumers of some food products in the Eastern Region revealed that most do not pay heed to the written information including the expiry date on the labels.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023 is World Food Safety Day and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.6m people get sick due to unsafe food consumption every day on average, or 1 in 10 people worldwide each year, with some 340 children under 5 years of age dying due to preventable foodborne
diseases every day. Also, about 200 diseases are caused by unsafe food, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.

Based on the theme, “Our Aim - Zero Harm,” World Food Safety Day on 7 June, 2023 draws attention to food standards aimed at ensuring the safety of food.

Pre-packaged foods come in various types of packaging such as in cans, glass, plastic and paper and form a significant part of the Ghanaian diet. These include fruit juices, breakfast beverages, soft drinks, canned fruits and vegetables, canned fish and beef, breakfast cereals, spreads, salad dressings, sauces, dairy products, oils, biscuits, flours, starchy powders, etc.

Consumers admits failing to read information on food labels

So, do consumers really take the time to abreast themselves with the relevant information on food packages such as expiry dates to ensure that they are consuming wholesome food?

Some may at best check expiry date and rely on known and trusted brands and convincing adverts to guide their choices.

GhanaWeb engaged some residents in the Eastern Region to observe if they really take time to read the instructions on food labels before consumption.

A teacher, Thomas Teye did not shy away from the fact that he’s never read any information on the labels of pre-packaged foods before consumption despite patronising most of these products.

Though he said he consumes products such as minerals, biscuits, bottled water, etc., the tutor said he was always in a hurry to consume his product irrespective of the risks.

Basking in his belief that sellers were responsible enough not to sell expired products, he noted: “I don’t check the expiry date because it’s like immediately I buy, I finish [consume] it,” said the tutor adding however that he checks the date if he’s going to keep the product over a period. If something that I’m going to keep in the house for days or some months, I’d check whether it’ll
expire within the month.”

A mobile money operator who spoke to GhanaWeb and said he had never checked for the expiry date of a product until an expired bottle of coke jolted him.

Michael Yohuno said though he never bothered to check the labels on any products, failing to hear the hissing sound upon opening a carbonated soft drink he had just bought aroused his suspicion and he was prompted to check the label for its expiry date where lo and behold, the product had expired two months earlier.

He said he believed there were many shops with expired products and urged the regulatory bodies like the Food and Drugs Authority [FDA] to intensify their crackdown on such culprits.

A school worker, Rebecca Padi simply answered, “I’ve never looked out for it [expiry date] because it has never occurred to me to do so.”

She acknowledged that the date safeguards consumers like her from danger and resolved to begin looking out for it.

Christiana Konotey, a caterer however said she always looked out for such information before buying the products for her business.

Risks

The fact however remains that consumers consistently put their health at risk by ignoring food labels on pre-packaged foods. Severally, fears have been raised regarding the addition of excessive amounts of preservatives, non-nutritive ingredients, salt, sugar and fats to some pre- packaged foods and their potential adverse impact on our health.
 
Role of the FDA

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is mandated to inter alia “ensure the safety, quality and the efficacy of food.”

Public Relations Officer of the Authority in the Eastern Region, George Ampofo Ayeh responding to the development admitted that consumers paid very little attention to the information on food products.

He said, “We found out that most of them are always in a hurry so they don’t even have time to examine the product, the physical integrity of the product.”

On the FDA’s continuous sensitisation activities to educate consumers on their safety, he noted that the regulatory body engages in regular education of the public on the need to ensure that what they patronise is safe for their consumption.

“Per our routine market public education programmes, we continue to educate the public to be mindful of whatever they buy from the market by first looking out for the FDA number on the product, look out for expiry date, look out for batch numbers…because you shouldn’t consume an expired product, you know the effects on the body,” said the PRO.

He encouraged patrons of pre-packaged foods to ensure that they look out for the relevant information of the product and avoid buying reduced to clear food items.