WFP partners with Ghana’s FDA to enhance food safety and quality

GHANA – The World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) towards ensuring food safety and quality in Ghana.

The MoU will help assist in providing oversight on the safety and quality management, post-production and market surveillance of targeted agro-food processing companies in Ghana.

The agreement falls under the Enhanced Nutrition and Value Added Chain (ENVAC) and seeks to support nutritional value chain development within the regulatory framework of Ghana.

As part of the agreement, the WFP has provided logistical support to aid in successful execution of the project which covers activities from factories to retail points as well as selected community level agro-food processors.

According to a Ghana News Agency report, the objectives of the partnership include assessing the level of compliance of 38 food retail facilities and 3 Industrial processors to FDA processing requirements by December 2019.

The partnership seeks to help in understanding food safety and quality issues faced by processing facilities in the 3 project regions.

According to a statement issued by the organisation, the FDA will embark on sampling and analysing products sold by 38 retail facilities to understand the level of food safety risks in the consumption of cereal blends in the project regions.

The regulatory body will also inspect 3 industrial processes to assess the level of compliance to Good Warehouse Practices.

Under the partnership, FDA and WFP also seek to gain better knowledge of what pertain with respect to safety and quality practices amongst retailers of fortified blended flours used in WFP nutrition programmes.

It will also enable better monitoring of the quality management practices implemented by the three industrial processors of the fortified blended flours and lipid-based nutritional supplements.

Appropriate training programmes will be organised to improve food safety and quality practices among retailers of fortified blended flours.

Mrs Delese Darko, the Chief Executive Officer of the FDA assured the Country Director of WFP that the Authority will work assiduously to ensure the success of the ENVAC project.

Ms Rukia Yacoub, the WFP Country Director commended the FDA adding that WFP looks forward to more collaboration with the regulatory body to ensure public health and safety.