Health Screening for food vendors
Posted on Febuary 1, 2021
Chief Executive of the Wassa Amenfi East Assembly (WAEMA), Helena Appiah, has called on Ghanaians to demand Food Handler's Certificate from food vendors before patronizing their food.
This according to her would help reduce the high incidence and consequences of foodborne diseases in the Municipality and ensure best practices for the production and serving of wholesome food in the town.
Speaking at the launch of the Annual health screening of food vendor held at the forecourt of the WAEMA on Monday, under the theme "Food Safety for a Healthy Tomorrow", Helena Appiah pointed out that foodborne diseases caused by the consumption of unsafe foods were responsible for the deaths of thousands of people each year and stressed the need to intensify producer and consumer education to create awareness on the quality of food.
"The regulation of food safety cannot be the responsibility of one entity alone. We all have a role to play to ensure that the food we consume stays safe at every stage of the food value chain; from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution and all the way to preparation and consumption thereby protecting lives and enhancing economic growth," she said. "Food safety is when one is confident that food after preparation or production will not cause any illness or death after consumptionIn Ghana today, we know that foodborne diseases caused by unsafe foods are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people each year...This is an unacceptable situation and we must all ensure that preventable food safety issues do not result in any more loss of human life," she added. Hon Helena Appiah disclosed that as part of efforts to ensure that food patronised and consumed in the town was safe, the Environmental Health of the WAEMA had made conscious efforts to create public awareness on the effects of unsafe food, screened food vendors, embarked on several inspections as well as enforcement exercises to ensure food safety within the Municipality.
