Scientists at a workshop at Tamale have cautioned rural communities to desist from using paracetamol, a painkiller, as a food tenderiser. This followed discussions at a workshop on processing and marketing of bambara beans and groundnuts during which it emerged that some rural communities use paracetamol, instead of the “kawe”, known otherwise as saltpetre, to tenderise food.

The foods that are mostly treated this way are beans and bambara beans and groundnuts to lessen the time required for cooking to save time and fuel. Some people in the rural communities also alleged that while they may experience stomach discomfort from beans and groundnuts tenderised with “kawe”, using paracetamol was good for them.

The scientists, made up of Dr Wisdom Plahar, Mrs Patience Larweh and Mrs Nana Takyiwa, all of the Food Research Institute, Miss Claire Coote of the Natural Resources Institute of the United Kingdom and Mr Sulemana Stevenson of Capsard, a local NGO, were unanimous in their call for a stop to the practice.

They argued that whilst consumers of beans and groundnuts tenderised with paracetamol may not experience any immediate discomfort, they could not rule out the possibility of long-term side effects since paracetamol is not meant to be used as food tenderiser.

Mr Stevenson said he and other scientists in Tamale carried out an experiment to check claims made by people who used paracetamol as tenderiser and it worked. “Using one tablet to cook a bowl of bambara beans and groundnuts had no significant effect but using two to three tablets per bowl led to faster cooking”, he said.

Some local food sellers who attended the workshop called for further research into the medicinal properties of kawe. A paper presented at the workshop said pre-soaking and boiling bambara beans in kawe reduced cooking time. The women said it was generally believed that kawe had medicinal properties and was sometimes used to treat stomach disorders. “While this traditional belief is generally widespread, no research has been carried out to confirm or disprove it. There is, therefore, the need for something to be done”, the women said.

Meanwhile, an official of the Food and Drugs Board has described the practice as criminal. Dr Alex Dodoo, Coordinator of National Pharmaco-vigilance of the Board, said that the use of paracetamol as a tenderiser could destroy internal organs such as the liver and the kidney, and could lead to death.

He said that paracetamol, even though one of the safest drugs, its misuse was a “sure way to death.” Dr Dodoo explained that the “overdose of paracetamol leads to the destruction of both the liver and the kidney. He said that taking more than four grammes of paracetamol a day was dangerous to the health of any individual.

Dr Dodoo said it was therefore medically wrong for anybody to use it for cooking. “It is only God who knows the quantity of paracetamol that they use in cooking those foods”. He said that old men and people with jaundice would suffer most since they already had weak livers and kidneys.