Accra, July 14, GNA - Ghanaian consumers have been urged to always insist on compliance with hygienic food handling practices by food retailers to ensure food safety and good health.

"We must not underestimate the need to create the demand for safe food in the ways that permanently change behaviours of food providers with spectacular results and also control the craving for what appears to be very appetizing food that is obviously unwholesome, which may cause our death," Major Courage Quashigah, Minister of Health said. He was speaking in Accra on Monday at the launch of the Sixth National Food Safety Week, which has the theme; "Clean Market, Safe Food, A Healthy People".

Organised by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) the week-long activities include a series of seminars for market women and market queens, market administrators, environmental health officers on market sanitation and safe food handling practices.

The Health Minister expressed regret that foodstuffs were exposed to unhygienic environment, improper agricultural practices at all stages of the food chain, lack of preventive controls in food processing, misuse of agro-chemicals and use of contaminated raw materials, which posed health hazards to our health.

He noted that the life expectancy of Ghanaians had fallen to 57 years and called for the need for Ghanaians to live healthy lives to raise life expectancy to 78 years.

Major Quashigah called for clean markets and clean foods for health citizens and healthy nation.

Mr Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, Chief Executive of FDB, said Food Safety Management System was required for all stakeholders in the food sector and called for the system to be assessed periodically to give assurance of its continued suitability, adequacy and effectiveness. He said sanitation was a fundamental stepping stone for safe food, good health and wealth creation adding that, there was the need to intensify activities to ensure that food supply was safe. He called on consumers to always look out for dates of expiry of products and purchase those that were neatly packed and placed in hygienic environments.

Solidarity messages from Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana Standards Board, World Health Organisation and Ghana Tourist Board commended FDB for introducing the health week and urged Ghanaians to be food safety conscious for healthy lives.