Accra, Feb. 3, GNA - Officials of the Food and Drugs Board, in cooperation with the Ghana Police Service, has resulted in the arrest of one Patience Kabla in connection with the sale of fake Exeter Corned Beef on the market.

A statement issued in Accra on Thursday said Patience confirmed having supplied 10 cartons of the fake Exeter Corned Beef to Mr Michael Kissi who had earlier been arrested and being prosecuted.

It said Patience is currently in police custody and helping with investigations.

The statement advised retailers of pre-packaged food products to buy their wares from credible suppliers.

It reminded consumers that the original Exeter Corned Beef permitted for sale in Ghana has a lithograph labelling, (i.e. the label is printed directly on the can and not on paper).

"The public is therefore alerted to look out for this feature when buying any Exeter Corned Beef," it added.

The FDB assured the public of its resolve to rid the market of the fake corned beef and advised the public to report any person(s) associated with the distribution of the fake Exeter Corned Beef or any other suspected fake or imitated food product to the FDB.

It will be recalled that Kissi was arrested for re-labelling fake and expired corned beef by wrapping Exeter Corned Beef labels over existing labels to deceive unsuspecting consumers into thinking that they are purchasing a genuine product.

He was retailing the fake product at the Accra Central Business District (Okaishie) Zone 18, around the Fire Service Area.

A statement signed by Dr. Stephen K. Opuni, Chief Executive of

FDB, on Monday noted that an evaluation of samples of the fake

Exeter Corned Beef further revealed that some of the cans had the

original expiry dates cleaned and replaced with a fake expiry date of

December, 2012 while in some instances the products had expired

since January, 2008. The FDB said its investigations revealed that two different

corned beef products, CB Corned Beef and Matador Corned Beef,

had been relabelled by pasting Exeter Corned Beef labels on them. According to the FDB, the original Exeter Corned Beef

permitted for sale in Ghana had a lithograph labelling, (i.e. the label

is printed directly on the can and not on paper), and therefore asked

the public to look out for that feature when buying any Exeter

Corned Beef. It also cautioned distributors and retailers against the supply,

display and sale of the fake Exeter Corned Beef since such acts

contravened sections of the Food and Drugs Law.