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The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), says it has reviewed its operations to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 on business, whiles ensuring the safety of the food supply chain.

To ensure this, the FDA is currently working with the food industry to prevent the spread of infections, in order to forestall any potential food safety and nutritional challenges that may arise.

Mr Seth Seaneke, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in-Charge of Drug Registration and Inspectorate Division, FDA, who made these known at a webinar video conference in Accra, said with food becoming an essential commodity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was vital to ensure its safety in order to prevent foodborne illnesses, while building and maintaining the body’s immune system for resistance against the disease.

He said continuous education and food safety awareness had been on-going on the Authority’s social media handles to equip everyone in making informed food choices, while the FDA had also fast-tracked the registration of hand sanitizers and face masks, to ensure their availability to all Ghanaians.

He however admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a disruption in food supply chains with some products, ingredients, or materials being unavailable or in short supply, adding that the in the rush to identify new suppliers, food businesses may focus less attention on the integrity of the supply chain, thereby compromising on food safety and food fraud.

This, he said it was unacceptable, as statistics by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has shown that unsafe foods were known to cause an annual morbidity in 600 million people globally, killing 420,000 of them.

Mr Seaneke said every stakeholder along the food chain in Ghana has a key role to play towards achieving the ultimate goal of food safety and sustainability, and called on all such institutions to be committed to implementing policies and legislation that supported sustainable food systems.

The video conference, which was organised by the FDA in collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organisation and other sister agencies, was part of the activities to mark this years’ World Food Safety, on the global theme: “Food Safety, Everyone’s Business”.

He said Ghana chose to focus on the topic “Food Safety in Our Business Environment during this COVID-19 Period,” pointing out that one particular area that needed much priority as food waste due to poor storage practices and sanitation in the markets, and called for urgent action if the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3), on “Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages” was to be achieved.

He urged every stakeholder institution to be committed to implementing policies and legislations that supported sustainable food systems, adding that “as we look to the future, it is vital that we continue to strengthen food control systems”.

Mr Seaneke stated that the FDA would welcome practical and implementable stakeholder recommendations for the development of a long-term action, to address food safety issues especially in improving sanitation in the markets.

Mr Ebenezer Kofi Essel, the Head of Food Industrial Support Services Department (FISSD), FDA, speaking on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the regulation of food in Ghana during the panel discussion, said a major pursuit expected of every National Food Regulatory Agency during such period was the intensification of measures that would ensure the continuous supply of safe and nutritious food.

He said concerns about infections resulting from exposure to the virus have had a toll and impact on some existing regulatory frameworks such as: Inspections (Local and Foreign), Market Surveillance, Import Controls and Laboratory Testing, while reduced man power and other logistical support have also led to the suspension of some of these regulatory activities.

Mr Essel argued that the absence of reduced regulatory control during this period could potentially put consumer health and safety at risk, increase risk of food fraud, compromise hygiene practices in food processing facilities leading to food contamination, and the danger of unwholesome food being sold to unsuspecting consumers.

He said delayed investigations of food complaints could affect market authorization and trade facilitation, and proposed among other things, the critical consideration of the national food safety situation in the light of regulatory coverage along the food supply chain.

He called for the identification and strengthening of the weak links, considering new collaborations including laboratory testing facilities, and possibly the use of private inspection entities, and the use of technologies in the execution of some regulatory functions, while putting together a comprehensive data on Food Businesses to facilitate risk categorization of these operations.

The FDA, he said, must consider easing some regulatory bureaucracies and administrative bottlenecks which did not necessarily enhance public health, but rather discourages self-compliance.

He said providing guidance to the food industry towards the implementation of Food Safety Management Systems, intensification media interactions including public education on consumer awareness, while making conscious efforts to deal swiftly and decisively with issues of regulatory infractions, being mindful not to create panic situations, but to demonstrate to the public that FDA was still in control.