A survey conducted by the Food and Drugs Board and the Food Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has revealed that some foods on the market have been adulterated with unwholesome substances to change their taste and outlook to make them attractive.

Perpetrators of such acts have therefore been warned that such an act is an offence and liable to imprisonment.

According to the survey alum and chalk were added to bread to whiten it, while for stale flour, ammonium carbonate was added to disguise its sour taste, adding that mashed potatoes, sawdust and plaster of Paris (POP) were also added to increase the weight of bread.

It noted that food dyes, colours and miscellaneous compounds were added to food to impart certain properties to disguise deteriorated or spoiled food to give the indication that such food was fresh.

The survey, which was conducted in eight regions, sought to provide some leads to the incidence of unwholesome consumables on the market in order for the relevant authorities to use the report as a working document.

The regions selected for the study were Greater Accra, Volta, Eastern, Central, Brong Ahafo, Western, Northern and Ashanti.

It indicated that saccharine was also added to maize porridge, sugar bread and doughnuts to sweeten its taste whilst cassava flour, roasted maize meal, maize flour, dried ground pear seed, cooking oil, water and fresh cassava chips were added to groundnut paste to increase its weight with tobacco leaves and marijuana found in pito to enhance its stimulant effects.

The Head of Food Registration and Nutrition at the Food and Drugs Board, Mrs Isabella Mansa Agra, confirmed that food adulteration was on the increase especially in the urban markets with the perpetrators playing on the ignorance of innocent buyers.

She explained that maize flour, milled fresh groundnuts, gari and wheat flour were added to ground agushie to increase its weight and this act was common in the Eastern, Northern, Western, Central and Greater Accra regions.

For miscellaneous foods, she pointed out that sugar, honey, baking powder, curry powder, soups and stews, water, caramel, wheat flour, granulated salt, maize flour and bixa seeds were added to enhance their sweetness.

Explaining the dangers associated with food adulteration, Mrs Agra said adulterants such as saccharine and aspartame could cause cancer whilst monosodium glutamate used in soups, stews and meat could cause brain damage, as well as causing mental retardation in infants while other food flavours cause cancer of the liver.


Source: Daily Graphic