By Albert Allotey, GNA
Accra, Dec. 20, GNA – The Coalition of NGOs in Nutrition and Food Security (CONFSEC), has urged the public to check the manufacturing and expiring dates of foods on the market shelves before buying.
This it said would help them to avoid food poisoning since the producers and sellers would want to play on their ignorance in view of the high demand for food items for the celebration of the Christmas.
The CONFSEC gave the advice when it organised a day’s educational programme on nutrition and food safety for traders and buyers at the Agbogbloshie Market in Accra.
Madam Bernice Okine-Mensah, a member of the Coalition and a Nutritionist, who took the marketers through the education, said Ghanaians should be moderate in taking salt, sugar, fatty and oily foods, to shun sicknesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
“You are what you eat. Now the Christmas is near and so many food products are in the markets; some are biscuits, drinks, toffees, chocolates, and other sweets. The food that enters our body could be medicine for us or become a problem to the body so we need to be watchful,” she said.
Madam Okine-Mensah said food items such as fruits and vegetables should not be exposed to the sun, which could take away their nutrients and would not be healthy for consumption.
She told the traders to keep their foodstuffs under hygienic conditions, preserve them from the sunshine and should maintain their surroundings tidy and avoid placing their wares on the floor since that could lead to contamination.
She called on the public to buy food items from hygienic surroundings.
The Nutritionist said hands must be washed thoroughly with soap and water before preparing food and that children should be given healthy foods like meat, fish, beans, eggs to protect them from becoming malnourish.
Nana Oguamena I, the Leader of the Agbogbloshie Vegetable Sellers advised traders to attend to hospital and clinic for treatment or visit the pharmacies, when they felt sick and should stop buying medicine from unqualified sellers within the markets.
“This act is dangerous to your health and you must stop it from henceforth to avoid worsening your situation,” he cautioned the traders.
Madam Nifisitu Amerley Amartey, the Deputy Chair of the Fishmongers Association of Agbogbloshie Market urged the public to stop patronising cheap food items as they could pay dearly for it later.
“My colleague women who are into that habit must put an end to it because it creates health and financial burden to the entire family at home,” she said while encouraging them to seek health attention at the hospitals and desist from self-medication.
Madam Jane Amerley Oku, a member of CONFSEC and a co-facilitator of the programme urged the traders to ensure that they ate good food to look healthy.
Mr Defoe Kekesi, the Public Relations Officer of the Coalition in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the CONFSEC comprised of nutrition and food security experts and individuals who were working together to raise the red flags or promote nutrition and food safety that fall in the nation’s development agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’.
He said it also fostered collaboration among stakeholders including; Government, the private sector, intergovernmental agencies, partners and donors to work jointly to increase people’s understanding about the consequences of malnutrition in early life, create or increase awareness, build capacity, advocate policy change in order to ensure timely, consistent and evidence-based service delivery of nutrition and food security intervention in a sustainable manner.
The leadership of the CONFSEC are; Mr David Livingston, Mr Defoe Kekesi, Mr Mandela Nelson-Richardson and Madam Jane Amerley Oku.
GNA
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