www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

A programme on Biosafety Systems on GM foods has been organised in Accra in
collaboration with Michigan State University (USA) by Naa Norley .
Thirty participants drawn from the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), Customs,
Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology (KNUST), Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research
Institute (BNARI), University of Ghana Nutrition and Food Science Department
and Food Research Institute attended the Programme.

Welcoming the participants, Mr. Kwamina Van Ess, Deputy Chief of the Food
Division of FDB, noted that the Board was bedeviled with a lot of challenges
with attitudinal change of consumers being a major problem to it.

He said issues of labeling and influx of unapproved food on the market was
another source of worry to the Board, noting that most consumers were not
abreast with rules and regulations guiding the handling of food in the
country.

He mentioned the overlapping functions of food agencies in food safety
control in the country revealing that currently over 13 agencies oversee the
handling and approval of food items in the country. He said very soon, the
Board would make hazard analysis critical control point, which is a food
management tool, mandatory on every manufacturer.

Delivering a paper on the current status and implementation of food/drug
laws and regulations in the country and GM food products, Mr. Kwamina
Baiden, a private legal practitioner, noted that the laws dealing with food
and drugs mandate the manufacturer to produce food under the supervision of
a person with appropriate knowledge and qualification in the manufacture of
that food with the person ensuring the purity and wholesomeness of the food.

He said the principal law directly regulating food and drugs is the FDB Law
1992 (PNDC L 305B) which has been amended to suit modern trends in handling
of food by an Act of Parliament, Act 1996, act 523 and the Standard Decree,
1973 which also generally includes food and drugs.

Mr. Baiden said the draft Biosafety Bill has comprehensive provisions for
dealing with GM activities and more specific regulations, noting that the
FDB would play a vital role under the bill.

Assessing GM food in the country, Mr. Baiden explained that the Board would
be charged to check to ensure that such food was of good quality and safe
for human and animal consumption with labeling indicating that it is a GM
food.

He said the labeling and packaging or advertising of GM foods should not be
deceptive or misleading, for example, making it look like a food product
with which consumers are already familiar when it is not so.

He revealed that under the new bill, the Minister of Health has been
delegated with powers to make additional regulations to govern food matters
after due consultation with the Board in order to make flexible, dealings
with future and unanticipated developments.

Dr. Hector Quemada from Western Michigan University, delivering a paper on
GM crops and their connection with food safety issues, said that genetically
engineered crops were crops into which a new gene had been introduced using
recombinant DNA and transformation.

[allafrica.com]