The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has banned the sale of products that contain a chemical mostly found in body bleaching creams.
The increase in the sale of such creams has become a public health concern with many health practitioners warning against usage.
Speaking before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing in Parliament on Wednesday, the Acting Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Authority, Mimi Darko said they were also using laboratory tests to identify such creams.
“The bleaching agent in most bleaching creams is hydroquinone and the Ghana standard now is, there should be zero percent hydroquinone in bleaching creams and the Food and Drugs Board, being the regulatory authority, has taken that standard and we are now implementing it. So since January this year [2017], we don’t register a product that has hydroquinone in the product.”
The FDA has had meetings with cosmetic sellers on the market and “is working with them to ensure that those creams are not available on the market,” Mrs. Darko said.
“The lab is also testing to make sure that even if they try and hide it, we will find it is laboratory analysis,” she warned.
Aside from this, the FDA is also ensuring it is on top of food safety issues, which capture public attention when reports of alleged plastic rice and the like surface.
Mrs. Mimi Darko also disclosed that the Authority has waged a relentless war on the sale of unwholesome food.
She said the authority “we inspect restaurants. We go to the market places. We work with cop bar operators to ensure that they operate the chop bars under hygienic conditions. We educate all traders… we do do a lot on food safety.”
