Accra, Oct. 19, GNA - Ghanaian manufacturers and producers were on Tuesday urged to add value to their products by adhering to standardisation so that their products would meet the acceptable quality levels required by national and international standards.

"If standards are maintained, more customers are attracted, more sales are done, and thereby wealth is created. This helps alleviate poverty," Mr Lawrence Yankey, Acting Executive Director of the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), said.

Speaking at the opening of a training workshop for Sachet Water Producers in Accra, Mr Yankey expressed the regret that despite efforts of the GSB and other regulatory bodies to ensure quality products, some unscrupulous manufactures produced without recourse of the necessary requirements.

He particularly mentioned water producers and advised them to ensure that drinking water churned out from their factories met requirements since the consumption of unwholesome water had dire consequences.

"Water is consumed by everybody because it plays a vital role in human life; drinking water for that matter is compulsory for every person, everyday and every time."

Mr Yankey noted that some sachet water producers illegally used the mark of conformity of the GSB without the Board's approval.

Moreover, Mr Yankey said, those who opted to go through the rigorous certification procedure failed to obtain the certification mark due to their inability to pay proper attention to basic hygiene, simple labelling rules and quality control procedures.

He announced that the Board would soon embark on a programme under which it would translate portions of quality standards into the local languages, particularly, that on production of drinking water, to enable more people to better understand the message of standardisation. Mr Yankey told the participants drawn from all over the country and are being taken through the "Scheme of Inspection and Testing", "Certification Procedures and Mark of Conformity" and "Standards Requirements" to acquire the knowledge and go back to put them into practice to improve upon their products.

Mrs Charlotte Ohene-Manu, Deputy Executive Director (Technical), said the training was part of a series of activities embarked upon to educate producers and manufacturers on how to ensure quality in their products.

She said though it was now not compulsory for drinks and food products to bear the logo of GSB because the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) now had the sole responsibility to regulate such products, producers who still wished to associate their products with the "mark of quality of the GSB for public acceptability could freely do so". She, however, cautioned that any producer or manufacturer, who would use the mark of GSB without permission or consultation with the Board, would be prosecuted. 19 Oct. 04