Food and Drugs Board’s food fortification project successful – Darkwah

The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) on Tuesday expressed appreciation for the success of the National Food Fortification Project which started in November 2006 and ended in May 2011 saying industrial support for the project has been remarkable.

Mr John Odame Darkwah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer in-charge of Food, told the GNA that both local and foreign manufacturing companies as well as importers mandated to produce and supply consumers with fortified cooking oil and flour in Ghana complied.

He said although the project had come to an end, the FDB would continue to ensure that health risks associated with lack of iron and vitamin A were reduced.

Mr Darkwah noted that though food logo was launched under the project, it was not printed on most products because manufacturers had printed large quantities of their original label which were yet to be exhausted, but explained products that entered the country were tested to ensure compliance before allowed on the market.

He said the project achieved about 90 to 95 per cent success in the fortification of local and foreign oil products while flour recorded 100 per cent fortification.

A Ministry of Health Research in 2003 showed eight out of 10 children under five years were anaemic, while six out of 10 women in the reproductive age were also anaemic.

Health officials blamed the situation on the absence of micronutrients such as protein, vitamins and iodine in most food products.

Ghana’s unacceptable maternal mortality rate of 451 deaths per 100,000 births is attributed to anaemia.

Estimated child death due to Vitamin A deficiency for 2005-2014 is pegged at 104,300, a situation experts described as worrying.

The National Food Fortification Project took off in November 2006 with the fortification of salt and included flour and oil because they are largely eaten by a large number of Ghanaians

The Board said compliance would reduce health risks relating to consumption of unfortified food products and was asking public support to ensure total compliance with the law on fortified food items on the Ghanaian market.

It is estimated that Ghana would lose over $42 million when her workforce suffer anaemia for a period of 10 years while over $2 million would be lost as a result of anaemia in children over the same period.

Source: GNA