Provost of the College of Humanities and Legal Studies, Professor Francis Eric Amuquandoh has urged the general public especially food regulatory bodies in the country to ensure that food processed and supplied on the market is safe for consumption.
Speaking at a day’s interdisciplinary workshop organized by the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise Development (CESED) of the University of Cape Coast, he said everybody has a stake in producing safe food adding that what one consumes must be safe.
Under the theme, “Interdisciplinary approaches to food processing and consumer goods research in the Covid era” as part of activities of the Building Expertise and Training for Growth (BET) Ghana Project, the workshop brought together academics from different disciplines in the University of Cape Coast to share ideas on how to promote interdisciplinary research and networking in consumer goods and food processing in UCC as well as value-chain approaches to interdisciplinary research in the consumer goods and food processing industry.
Prof. Amuquandoh further hinted that Africa as a continent is generally labelled as an unsafe continent when it comes to food because of weak food regulatory authorities.
What are these food regulatory bodies doing? What are some of their constraints that can improve their role in ensuring sound and safe food?” he asked.
Professor Ernest Ekow Abano, Head of Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Cape Coast called on academics to constantly conduct interdisciplinary research to help solve the myriads of problems facing Ghana’s consumer goods and food processing industry.
He notes that the creation of industries under this sector dates back to the 1950s however most of them have been shut down or privatized. This he said may have contributed to our decline in GDP especially because of the impact of the Covid. This he said “should make us all worried as a people.”
He adds that, the industry is very relevant to the economic growth of the country and thus there is the need to address its challenges to ensure its sustainability.
Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
