Food borne diseases on the increase (Graphic Business)

THE total number of out-patients reported with food borne diseases in Ghana is about 420,000 per year, with an annual death rate estimated at 65,000 and total cost to the economy at US$69 million.
Other figures gave a total number of 84,000 deaths per year with 25 per cent being children under five years. Similarly, with production and post harvest losses of 10 to 30 per cent each year, poor agricultural health conditions significantly affect rural livelihoods.
This was contained in a speech read on behalf of
The Food and Agriculture (FAO) Regional Representative in Africa, Ms Maria Helenade Morias Semedo, in a speech at a forum on food safety, organised by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) ahead of the World Food Day celebrations called on all stakeholders to help check some of these problems in the country.
The theme for the event is: “United Against Hunger”
She said the FAO would start a project with the University of Cape Coast to develop an e-learning course on food standard.
In addition, the organisation is in the process of developing a manual on safe use of waste water in vegetable production aimed at minimising the health risks associated with the use of untreated water in crop production.
Additionally, the organisation supported the Ghana Tourist Board to train selected operators of restaurants in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western and Central regions of the country in food safety.
Access to safe and nutritious food is fundamental human right and the backbone of FAO’s work. However, despite growing international attention, latest statistics still report one billion people living in chronic hunger and food security remains one of the most urgent world-wide concerns. Global hunger and malnutrition remains increasingly an African problem.
As part of her address, Ms Semedo said in Ghana consumption of unsafe food had impacted heavily on the health of the population and would continue to do so, explaining that the situation had seriously impaired livelihoods of the people.
On daily basis the Ghanaian public faced many dangers and hazards which are food-related, including the misuse and abuse of agricultural chemicals, environmental contamination, use of unauthorised food additives, poor sanitation at processing sites and transportation of food in unhygienic containers.
Other areas of concern are food diseases such as salmonella in poultry products, aflatoxin in grains, which could cause liver cancer, foot and mouth disease in sheep and goat, African Swine Fever in pigs and anthrax and Mad Cow disease found in cattle.
When it was his turn address the gathering, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, said concerns over food safety and quality were increasing world-wide and had become priority areas for governments, food producers, industrialists, traders and consumers.
He pointed out that for a healthy nation, it was necessary for consumers to ensure that while receiving adequate nutrients, they did not develop food-borne illness.
To meet that objective, he said Ghanaians as partners should ensure that food was produced, processed, transported and stored under hygienic conditions that met the relevant and safety criteria.
It came out at the ceremony that in our part of the world, routine laboratory examinations are not done by individuals to enable them know their health status and the extent to which food borne diseases is affecting them thus resulting in low productivity. The economy thus suffers as money would have been invested in the treatment of such food-borne diseases and several productive hours lost when the victim recuperates.
It is also important to note that the global environment is changing and scientific knowledge within the area of food safety is making tremendous advances with view to safeguard the health of consumers.
The Chief Executive Officer of the FDB, Dr Stephen Opuni, maintained that food security was an issue of national and international significance, saying food security affected all countries and had substantial impact on both public health and economic activity.
Touching on the theme, Dr Opuni said there was the need for agencies and institutions to combine their efforts at ensuring food safety and food security to achieve any measurable eradication of hunger.
The chairperson for the forum, Professor Esther Sekyi-Dawson of the Department of Food and Nutrition at the University of Ghana, Legon, stated that there was the need for co-ordinated, collaboration and national cohesion to ensure adequate food production in the country.