The Central Regional Directorate of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA)has held a Good Manufacturing Practising training workshop for selected manufacturers of drinks and juice service producers in Cape Coast.
The day's sensitisation was to ensure absolute protection of drinks and other consumable items from all forms of contaminants in the environment and to equip the participants to be abreast with the basic manufacturing laws to deliver quality products.
The training brought together 48 participants from 28 selected manufacturing companies in the Central Region and were taking through Product Registration and Facility Licensing Requirements, quality assurances, ways of controlling hazards among others.
Addressing the participants, Mr. John Odai - Tettey, the Acting Regional Director of the FDA explained that the training was to harmonise and bring all manufacturers to terms with the current codes of manufacturing rules to ensure good manufacturing practices.
He said, FDA was a regulatory agency which ensured that consumable products were of better conditions for human consumption and urged consumers to be vigilant and watchful on excessive reduced priced goods this Christmas to avoid food poisoning.
Mr. Emmanuel Ofori Osei, a Regulatory Officer of FDA and a facilitator schooled participants on product registration and facility licensing requirements and cautioned them to stop misleading consumers with pictorial representation adding that "whatever you put on your label should represent everything about your company".
He charged manufacturers to provide the necessary information when labelling their product to meet standard requirements of the FDA.
The Regulatory Officer asked participants to sensitise their distributors on storage instructions and liaise with buyers to be able to track products and dispose of safely expired goods and products.
Taking participants through the Process Control Systems (PCS), Mr. Jesus Okyere, also a Regulatory Officer with the FDA mentioned that technology allowed manufacturers to keep their operations running within specified limit and set more precise limits to maximise profitability to ensure quality and priority safety.
He pointed out that delivery Vans carrying food and beverage products should be covered to prevent exposure to the sun and dust particles which could reduce the expiry date on the products.
Ghana News Agency ( GNA) interviewed some of the participants and shared their experience working with the FDA.
Mr. Hiram Laicd-Anderson, a representative of Hilands Court Hotel in Elmina said the Hotel intends venturing into the production of beverages to serve its clients and praised officials of FDA for the training.
According to him, the collaboration cleared the misconception about the FDA and that the training taught them how to produce quality products and ensure good manufacturing practices to meet standard requirements.