The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has said Ghana’s food-safety crisis is being driven less by a lack of laws than by weak enforcement, inadequate laboratory capacity, and the failure to keep regulation in step with emerging risks.
The Association said Ghana already had a regulatory framework covering food safety, including the Public Health Act, 2012, and the Food and Drugs Authority Act, but implementation remained a major weakness.
“Ghana’s challenge is not a lack of policy but deficiencies in enforcement, laboratory capacity, and adaptation to emerging risks,” the GMA said in a communiqué issued after its 26th Annual Public Lecture in Koforidua.
The Association called for an urgent expansion of enforcement capacity, including additional regulatory personnel and stronger food-safety laboratory infrastructure across the regions.
It also urged the Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Standards Authority and other regulatory bodies to intensify market surveillance to detect and prevent the sale of unsafe and adulterated foods.
The GMA identified a range of hazards across Ghana’s food chain, including Sudan Red dye in palm oil, lead contamination in turmeric and spices, adulterated tomato paste, illegal fruit-ripening agents, pesticide residues and antibiotic residues in poultry products.
It said poor market conditions were also compounding the problem, citing inadequate access to potable water, contaminated packaging, poor rodent control, and weaknesses in storage and transportation.
The Association further called for stronger border controls to prevent unsafe food products from entering the country and urged District Assemblies to enact food-safety bylaws without further delay.
It recommended increased investment in food-safety infrastructure, including potable water in markets, cold-chain facilities and laboratories capable of detecting emerging contaminants.
The GMA also urged regulators to work more closely with market traders and the informal food sector, saying they should be treated as active partners in improving food safety rather than solely as enforcement targets.
The Association said effective food safety required coordinated action from government, regulators, industry, food vendors, healthcare professionals and consumers.
“Safe food should be everywhere, regardless of where consumers get it,” the communiqué said, reiterating the central message of the public lecture.
The 26th GMA Annual Public Lecture, held on July 24, 2026, focused on “Food Safety in Contemporary Ghana: Public Health Concerns for the Consumer.”
