The Eastern Regional office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has conducted safe disposal of unwholesome medicinal and food products as part of the FDA’s mandate to protect public health and ensure consumer safety.
The exercise was carried out in line with its regulatory function on the collection of seized unwholesome regulated products during the Christmas holidays in December 2021.
Some, however, were voluntary requests from the Ghana Revenue Authority (Customs Division) and pharmaceutical and Over-The-Counter Medicine (OTCM) stores.
Mr Joseph Yeboah Gyau, Senior Regulatory Officer from the FDA’s Enforcement Unit in Koforidua, who confirmed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency stated that the non-conforming products accounted for 1.2 tonnages and posed a health risk to consumers.
He defined post-market surveillance as the process of monitoring the safety of pharmaceutical, medical, and food products after manufacturers or marketers had released them into the market for sale or storage.
The activity was carried out under the supervision of waste landfills by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Environmental Health Regional Office, and the Food and Drug Administration.
According to him, the contaminated goods were crushed and buried with an excavator at the Akwadum dumping site near Koforidua.
Mr Gyau stated that products for safe disposal included expired, dented, rusted, and tempered date markings, as well as substandard medicines, fake medicines, unregistered food products, and other items with expired, dented, rusted, and tempered date markings.
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He stated that the post-market surveillance activity was part of their routine to identify all falsified and non-conforming regulated products.
As a result, he warned the public and regulated companies to refrain from conducting their own or personal safe disposal on regulated food and medicinal products, as there is a guideline and procedure mandating such items’ safe disposal.
