General News of Friday, 21 December 2007

Source: GNA

FDB winning war on sale of unwholesome good

Ho, Dec. 21, GNA - The Food And Drugs Board (FDB) says it winning the war against the sale of unwholesome goods, especially edibles. This, the Board, says is indicated by the dwindling volumes of expired and unregistered goods being seized in the shops countrywide. Mr Eric Owusu, Regulatory Officer at the Volta and Eastern Zonal Office of the Board, said this on Friday just before edibles worth Gh 3,336.2 were burnt at the refuse disposal site of the Ho Municipal Area off the Ho-Aflao highway.

He said the goods, which included rice, biscuits, alcoholic beverages and soft drinks and unregistered bottled 'shittor' were seized from traders within the last six months in various parts of the Volta Region.

Mr Owusu said the reducing volume of seized goods meant that the FDB's onslaught on recalcitrant traders, going along with education, was yielding good results as traders now voluntarily remove expired goods from shelves.

On smuggling, he said the multiple legal and illegal entry points was posing a big challenge to the FDB as many traders come into Ghana with little volumes of products which make monitoring difficult. Mr Owusu said consumer cooperation was also high as people who hitherto considered reporting traders selling unwholesome items as betrayal, now regarded that as a duty to the state.