The Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs for the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Joseph Yaw-Bernie Bennie, has assured that as a regulatory body, the FDA remains committed to protecting Ghanaians' health and safety.

According to him, the authority will not jeopardise the health and safety of Ghanaians, especially children or students for any reason.

This follows allegations made by the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who claimed that a total of 22,000 bags of expired and repackaged rice were distributed to various Senior High Schools across the country.

He alleged that the consignment was distributed through the Free Senior High School Secretariat in February this year.

Read also: 22,000 bags of expired rice allegedly distributed to SHSs across Ghana – Ablakwa

The North Tongu legislator, who also serves as Chair of the Assurances Committee in Parliament, said his investigation, launched after a tip-off, revealed that the act was deliberate, calling for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the directors of Lamens Investments Africa, the company accused of allegedly repackaging and distributing the expired rice.

In an interview on Joy FM’s Middaynews on Thursday, November 21, Mr Yaw-Bernie disclosed that the FDA intervened in a case involving unlicensed rice repackaging after receiving a complaint from the police, adding that the Authority collaborated with law enforcement to halt the unauthorised activity.

The company involved was sanctioned for three key violations: Operating a facility unlicensed for rice repackaging, conducting repackaging activities without FDA approval and undertaking the process without supervision, he said.

Additionally, he noted that the FDA identified that the "best before" date on the rice had expired. Initially, the product was recommended for disposal. However, following international and local laboratory tests conducted by the FDA, the Centre for Scientific Research (CSIR), and a facility in India, it was determined that the rice met quality standards.

Consequently, the "best before" date was extended to April 2024, instead of December 2023 as initially requested by the producer.

"So FDA says that based on this, the date on the rice as was seen on that day shows that the best before date had expired so what do you do? The first action to take was that we recommended that the product should be simply disposed of – that was the first recommendation made… but again when the producer applied for the censor which is internationally accepted, we looked at the quality of the product and so those three laboratory tests – in India, Centre for Scientific Research (CSIR) and Food research and FDA did a confirmatory test which tells us that the product can be used, and based on that the best before date was extended to April and not December as requested…,” he explained.

Mr Yaw-Bernie emphasized, “The FDA, as a regulatory institution, will not for any reason jeopardise the health and safety of Ghanaians, especially children and students. The FDA will shy away from handling unsafe products the way it should be handled."

He assured the public that the FDA strictly enforces regulations, citing previous actions such as destroying unsafe imported rice consignments and addressing food safety issues in schools.

“Not too long ago, we dealt with an incident in one of the Northern regions where a school was serving products unfit for human consumption. We acted swiftly to protect public health,” he added.