Ghanaians have been urged by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly's Environmental Health Department to exercise caution when purchasing food from hawkers.

Mr. Wisdom Aditse, Metro Head of Environmental Health Department who issued the caution explained that it was challenging to pinpoint the exact site where most food vendors and hawkers prepared their food.

“This makes it more challenging to spot sanitation issues; and instruct vendors on safe vendor practices.

Mr Aditse told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Tema, that most hawkers do not participate in health screening activities, therefore it was unclear which of them might have communicable diseases that could be passed on to customers.

Typhoid, tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, and other diseases were included in the screening, he said, adding that the diseases were identified by the culture of urine, stool test, and blood test.

He stated that attempts to make hawkers go through testing to become certified to sell were typically ineffective because some claimed they did not have the funds for such activities and others did not understand the significance of the health screening, making it risky to purchase food from them.

Mr. Aditse stated that while some of the hawkers' food deliveries had to be stopped for the Directorate to filter them, majority of them had their orders ignored.

He emphasized that Ghanaians must be cautious about where they buy food and where feasible check the certification of joints before buying from them. He said some people carried certain diseases but appeared healthy because of the symptoms and advised food vendors to participate in health screening in their jurisdictions.