The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is warning importers and manufacturers of food products to avoid importing or producing unwholesome products.

The Authority says it will apply stiff punishment to anyone or group found culpable.

The move comes a day after the FDA directed the withdrawal of all batches of 16 brands of tomato paste from the market, saying the products were found to contain ingredients such as starch and colour (erythrosine) that were not indicated on the labels.

The products included Alyssa Tomato Paste, Aicha Tomato Paste, Shalom Tomato Paste, Mama and Papa Tomato Paste; Juliet Tomato Paste, Star-Time Tomato Paste and Daily Double Concentrated Tomato Paste.

The others are Prestige Tomato Paste, Roi Lion Double Concentrated Tomato Paste, Richese Tomato Paste, Green Garden Tomato Paste and Rococo Tomato Paste.

The rest are Nano Tomato Paste, Tasty Family Tomato Paste and Ma Bravo Tomato Paste.

The Head of Food safety at FDA, Mr Roderick Dade Adjei, said on Tuesday that: “We want to take this opportunity to let the importers and manufacturers of food products to know that the Food and Drugs Authority is well aware and goes around to do the market surveillance activities, and we will not spare anybody when we see that coming out with these tricks like this to deceive the consumer.”

He explained that his outfit was surprised about how the 16 blacklisted brands of tomato paste got onto the market. “FDA does not know how the products got into the system and is still investigating how it got onto the market. We are still continuing with the investigation, the lab is working and if new names come up, we will let you know; that is why the statement is reflective, this will be continued… that is not the end of the list.”

Mr Dade Adjei mentioned that “there is a lot of mop up that the FDA does; we go on our market surveillance, we see a lot of things, we do just take them out and go after those who bring them in, it’s a bit of a challenge.”

He advised consumers and shop owners who come across the aforementioned products to alert the FDA.