The Western Regional Directorate of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has embarked on a Watch Campaign to sensitize the public on food safety, especially during the Christmas season.

The Campaign includes facility inspection, and market surveillance, which encompasses who, where and what to look out for when buying and selling food and other regulated products.

Mr Solomon Kwabena Boni, Regional Information Officer at the Western Regional Office of the FDA, in an interview said consumers must watch the nature of the product, especially the expiry date.

“Watch what you are buying like the state or nature of the product, having registration markings like expiry date, best before, manufacturing date, storage condition, uses or indication, not dented, bloated, defaced markings or tampered red date markings such as date with different font size or colour,” he added.

He said although the Customs and the Immigration Services were patrolling the borders to ensure no products got into the country illegally, the FDA also had Officers at the borders to certify that products that entered the country were regulated and met the standards.

“This is the reason why from time-to-time we conduct surveillance on the market to check whether all the products are the ones they have certified and clamp down on uncertified products,” he emphasized.

Mr Boni said the Authority was undertaking surveillance at Ellembelle, Jomoro and Tarkwa to withdraw non-compliant products from the market and to protect consumers.

He said the FDA was on course with its Post Market Surveillance (PMS) to remove unregistered, counterfeit, expired and unwholesome products as well as other non-compliant FDA related products on the Ghanaian market.