These included food products, herbal medicines, medical devices, tobacco products, boxes and bottles of fruit juice, and household chemical substances among others.

They were said to have been confiscated by the FDA from some shops during a routine inspection exercise conducted in Nsawam, the Afram Plains, Somanya, Oda, Asamankese, New Abirem ,Begoro, Akosombo, Atimpoku, Nkawkaw, Kwahu, and Suhum.

The Eastern Regional Director of the FDA, Mr. Samuel Kwakye told the Ghanaian Times that it was unfortunate that such goods which should have been cleared off the shelves were still on the market.

He said the confiscation and destruction exercise was to help sanitize the market environment and to caution the general public about the state of unsafe goods in the system.

“If you see the volumes of goods we are destroying here today,  it shows how unsafe we are,” The FDA Regional Director,  said and urged the public to be alert and check out for storage and handling conditions, expiry dates, as well as FDA registration numbers on the products when buying them to ensure their safety.

Mr Kwakye also advised the shop owners to occasionally check their goods and clear the expired ones off the shelves to avoid selling them to consumers adding that they could also bring their unwholesome goods to the FDA for safe disposal. 

He noted that per the Public Order Act 871, the FDA, was mandated to organise such exercise, stressing that the FDA was committed to ensuring public safety through similar exercises.

For his part, the Senior Revenue Officer of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Mr Kwamina Ankoh advised the public to be mindful of what they buy and consume.

He disclosed that FDA officers had been deployed at the country’s boarders to ensure that banned goods were not brought  in and sold to unsuspecting public.

FROM AMA TEKYIWAA AMPADU AGYEMAN, KOFORIDUA