Food vendors to undergo mandatory health screening
The Public Health Department of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) will this year enforce its regulation that requires that food vendors undergo annual medical checks to ensure food safety in the city.
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The Metropolitan Director of Public Health of the AMA, Dr Simpson Anim Boateng, explained that based on the mandate of the Public Health Department to protect and promote the health of citizens in the city, the department had over the years educated and sensitised food vendors on the requirement to undergo medical screening and also sell under hygienic conditions.
“Unfortunately, the education programmes have achieved little because most vendors keep moving from place to place and also frequently change persons who sell. Under the circumstance, it becomes difficult to apprehend offenders who breach the by-laws,” he said.
He said as part of efforts to get people to become committed to ensuring food safety, health education was carried out in schools, markets, lorry stations and other places where people converge.
He has, therefore, expressed determination to ensure that the right things were done.
Dr Boateng said officers from the environmental health department went round the city periodically to check on the health status of people vending food in the city but were often met with hostility.
“What they forget is that it is an offence to sell food in Accra when you have not been medically screened. Vendors who pass the health screening tests are issued certificates,” he said.
He said those who did not have health certificates would be given time to go for the screening. If after the end of the deadline any vendor is found to have breached the law, the offender will be put before court.
Dr Boateng said it was necessary to conduct health checks on people who sold food to the public because of the easy spread of communicable diseases, especially cholera, when food is cooked or handled in unhygienic conditions and surroundings.
He has, therefore, advised the public not to buy food anywhere and be conscious of the health status of those who sold food to them.
