Over 500 food venders in Accra have been dragged to court for selling food without following due processes. Director of Metro Public Health at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Dr. S.A Boateng has disclosed to Adom News that the vendors involved refused to undertake a medical examination as required by the Metro Public Health. Dr. Boateng said a monitoring team has been put in place to visit the vendors every three days to ensure that they do not violate the ban. He said many of the food vendors have had their food destroyed for not meeting the standard required by the Metro Health Directorate. He stated that the affected vendors can only have the ban lifted, after they had gone for medical examinations and given confirmation from a hospital that they are fit to cook for sale to the public. “It is an offence to flout an order not to sell and those disobeying the order must conform” he warned. Dr. Boateng is however worried that sanitation offences sent to court are not given the needed attention, and that the delay in the disposal of the cases is discouraging the sanitation officers from pursuing the cases. “Sanitation is everybody’s business and all must share in the responsibility of ensuring that their surroundings are clean to [promote] a healthy nation” Dr. Boateng stressed. Meanwhile some food vendors within the Tema Metropolis have admitted that Health Inspectors from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) visit them regularly, to check their health status to know whether or not they are fit to sell. They also told Adom News that they all have health reports from recognized hospitals that prove that they are not suffering from any diseases that could make them unfit to sell food to the public. Story by Akosua Addai Mununkum/Adom News