The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) in the last six months jailed five food vendors and closed down a restaurant for flouting food safety regulations.
It also confiscated the items of 17 food vendors, Mrs Florence Kuukyi, Director, Metro Public Health Department, AMA, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
She said some of the vendors sold expired food, ingredients and food cooked at unclean places.
Mrs Kuukyi said kitchen staff, who were not medically screened or were suffering from infectious diseases, which could be transmitted to consumers, were operating.
She said her office was embarking on education, training, screening, and monitoring of food vendors at supermarkets, drinking spots, school canteens, restaurants, hotels, night clubs, chop bars and food stands, and called for support from the public.
Mrs Kuukyi said AMA over 1,868 food vendors had been screened since January and certified to sell food.
She said food was one of the “drivers that sustains humans,” so there was the need to always ensure food safety.
Mrs Kuukyi advised the public to be responsible for whatever they consumed ensuring that every morsel was safe to swallow. —GNA