School of Food Biosciences, The University of Reading, UK
Please note that material on these pages, and the use of it, is subject to a disclaimer.

Food Law Internet Project (F.L.I.P.)

Return to FLIP Home Page

Ghana

General Information

• WHO Africa - Country Profile: http://afro.who.int/des/fos/country_profiles/ghana.pdf
• The main food safety and quality problems encountered by the country’s exports by foreign buyers are pesticide residues; inadequate information on food safety & quality management systems; no document on pesticide use & residues levels; no access to standards & regulations enforced in the importing country. Mechanism for collection and dissemination of information on the export system is not available and has constraints, such as lack of country’s MRL’s; Risk assessment. The main food safety and quality problems encountered with the country’s imports include inadequate product inspection, information on product identity & standards is inadequate; information on manufacturing process, specifying quality assurance is non-existent. However, mechanism for monitoring food imports is a vailable but lack manpower & training. Food laws in Ghana include; Food and Drugs Law (PNDC law 305 B) and Amendment Act 523; District Assemblies Bylaws. These laws are implemented at Central level by the Food an Drugs Board and at the Local level by the District Assemblies. Constraints to implementation are manpower/resources for enforcement.

See also International Portal on Food Safety, Animal & Plant Health

Key Legal Documents

Links to Organisations involved in Food Law

Information (listed by date)

2005

• Document: FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for Africa, Zimbabwe , 3-6 October 2005 by WHO Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
• Source: International, Regional, Sub Regional and National Cooperation in Food Safety in Africa.
• Extract: The Ghana Food and Drugs Law (PNDC Law 305 B) and Amendment Act 523 seek to ensure that only safe and wholesome food, drugs and other substances are made available for public consumption. The production and sale of food is governed by food standards established and promulgated by the Ghana Food and Drugs Board of the Ministry of Health. There are regulations and by-laws to control food hygiene and the Metropolitan Medical Officer has the vested authority for their enforcement. The Ghana Standards Board and the Ministries of Agriculture and Trade, as well as Customs and Excise are all involved in food safety.
• Link: http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001653/P2002-FAO_WHO_food-safety_Oct2005.pdf

• Document: Additional Notes on the Food Safety Situation in Ghana.
• Source: FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for Africa Harare , Zimbabwe , 3-6 October 2005.
• Extract: This paper describes the status of street vended foods in Ghana. Ghana is developing a Food Safety Management System to support small and medium Enterprises’ in the food sector. The Government of Ghana has started a number of initiatives to help improve the informal food delivery sector, especially in the area of safety of the street vended foods. In support of these initiatives, the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK Government under its Crop Post-Harvest Programme (CPHP) has since 1999 been sponsoring three research projects on the street-vended food business in Ghana.
• Link: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/010/af183e.pdf

• Document: Report of the Sixteenth Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa.
• Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Codex Alimentarius Commission, Twenty-eighth Session , Italy , 4 – 9 July 2005.
• Extract: Ghana has twelve institutions and agencies involved in food control activities, including the Ghana Standards Board, Food and Drugs Board and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. However, there is an on-going review of the statutes to re-align the functions and responsibilities of these agencies to overcome overlapping areas. Cooperation in the sub-region on food safety issues is low and this must be given even higher priority. It is expected that ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) will set up a desk for Codex matters to promote food safety standards in the sub-region. Ghana has been associated with Codex for over 30 years and has 22 members in the National Codex Committee (NCC). The NCC is actively involved in matters of food standards and safety. As part of a project to establish an integrated food safety management system for Ghana, FAO/World Bank have supported a survey on baseline studies on food control activities in Ghana. The actual project is yet to take off. The membership of the National Codex Committee (NCC) includes the Consumers’ Association of Ghana (CAG), an independent consumer NGO and the Ghana Private Public Partnership Project, an autonomous food safety initiative. The representatives of these organizations participate regularly in NCC meetings and activities. They are also members of sub-committees of the NCC and contribute to the preparation of national positions for Codex meetings. The NCC is planning to invite representatives of other identifiable consumer NGOs to participate in the Codex process in future.
• Link: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/632/al28_28e.pdf

2003

• Document: Report of the Fifteenth Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa.
• Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme Codex Alimentarius Commission, 30 June – 5 July 2003.
• Extract: National Codex Committee has been established effective February 2002 and the Codex contact point is established and resides in the Ghana Standards Board. It was reported that National Standards are being harmonized with Codex standards and that a National Integrated Food Safety Programme has been initiated with Technical and Financial assistance from FAO and World Bank. Implementation phase is to begin in 2003. The Delegation also reported that the Food and Drugs Board and Natural Resource Institute (NRI) of Greenwich University in the UK have embarked on training and to eventually license HACCP Inspectors for Ghana. HACCP Training for officers of Standards Body, Regulatory bodies, small, medium and large scale industries, local government and consumers is on-going, and Local government environmental health officers have been trained on regulation of street vended foods. GMP/HACCP training for production and QA managers in small, medium and large-scale industries has also been undertaken. In Ghana the role of consumers was recognized and consumers were represented in the governing boards of Ghana Standards Board (GSB), Food and Drug Board (FDB) and National Codex Committee. The Delegation indicated that Consumer Protection Bill was presently before the parliament of Ghana but pointed out that there were many fragmented consumer groups and that efforts were being made to bring them under the one umbrella.
• Link: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/407/Al03_28e.pdf

2001

• Document: Report of the Fourteenth Session of the Codex Coordinating Committee for Africa
• Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme,Codex Alimentarius Commission, Twenty-Fourth Session, Geneva, 2 - 7 July 2001.
• Extract: The Delegation of Ghana indicated that the development of a bilateral approach with Nigeria had been initiated as the first step to broader harmonization among ECOWAS partners. The Codex Contact Point was located in the Ghana Standards Board. The Board receives and disseminates Codex texts to all interested bodies in the country. The National Codex Committee has been inactive for quite sometime, but steps were being taken to re-establish it. However, participation in Codex activities have continued, such as attendance at selected Codex sessions and related FAO/WHO activities. It was expected that the new National Codex Committee would be in place in 2001. The Delegation informed the Committee that the Food and Drug Legislation required that the composition of the supervising Board should include two government appointed individuals who would represent consumers' interests in the activities of the Board. Other private individuals also served consumer interests on sub-committees in the development of national standards. However, all these individuals so appointed or co-opted did not represent or belong to any consumer association. Their representations were therefore informal. There were currently four consumer associations in Ghana and it was hoped that the National Codex Committee, when activated, would be able to bring the consumer associations under one umbrella, which would effectively take part in Codex matters at the national and international levels.
• Link: http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/005/X9372E/x9372e09.htm#TopOfPage

Information last updated - 14 July 2006