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The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) on Friday organized a food safety sensitization programme in Sunyani for food vendors and handlers to ensure consumers’ safety and healthy living in the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions.

The event was the regional observation of the maiden World Food Safety Day (WFSD) marked internationally on the theme: “Food Safety is Everybody’s Business”.

Addressing the food vendors and handlers, Ms Akua Amponsaa Owusu, the acting Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regional Head of the FDA said “we eat to live but not live to eat, hence it is very important to check the food you eat to safeguard your safety”.

Ms Owusu cautioned the public against food items exposed to direct sunlight, adding that, frozen foods must always be kept frozen and stressed the need to check expiry dates on canned and packed foods before purchasing.

She said vegetables must be washed with either vinegar, salt solution or soaked in charcoal solution for about 30 minutes before consumption.

Ms Owusu said consumers must also ensure that inscriptions on a product was clearly written in English and other languages they could understand and must have been approved by the FDA before buying them.

“Be conscious of what you eat”, saying that, “if a doctor makes a mistake, he or she kills one person but if a ‘waakye’ seller makes a mistake, he or she kills many”.

Ms Owusu, therefore, cautioned the general public to refrain from consuming wayside food without considering factors such as “where it is prepared, where it is being sold, who prepares it and who sells it.”