The Silent Killer on our Streets
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Jan 27,
Ghanadot - There has been a phenomenal increase
in the activities of street food vendors in Accra,
Kumasi,
Sekondi-Takoradi, Cape Coast and Tamale and other
urban centres over the last few decades. The influx of
working people and students into the national and
regional capitals, with majority of such people
traveling long distances between their work
places/schools and their residences
compels them to rely on street vended foods, which are
more convenient and ready to eat. Such foods are
normally patronized in the afternoons and in the
evenings.
In
Ghana, examples of some
common street vended foods are waakye ,
fufu, Ga kenkey, rice balls (Omo Tuo), Fanti
kenkey, cooked rice,
fried plantain, roasted yams, cooked beans and
boiled yams.
These vended foods
abound in Nima, Mamobi, Ministries area, Kasoa,
lorry parks, school compounds and campuses, beaches and
market places. Khebabs, bread and salad and
fruit juice, are also vended foods.
All these contribute significantly to the
Ghanaian economy.
The
street food sector alone employs more than 60,000
people in Accra, according to a study. An estimated
annual turnover of US$100 million and profit of US$24
million are realised from this
sector.
Instructively, 94% of the vendors are
women with little education. About 75% of them do not
belong to the Ghana Traditional Caterers Association,
and therefore hardly pay tax.
Street food, when managed properly could
contribute to food security and nutrition in the
country.
The phenomenon of working couples with
the women having little or no time for traditional
cooking skills, gives room for partial or total
dependence on cooked street food for the family. Most
bachelors, spinsters, married men and women also depend
heavily on
street foods.
However, the lack of attention, and
ignorance of hygiene, poor access to clean water, the
problem of sanitation and disposal of waste and
conditions in which some of these foods are prepared and
handled have often turned these convenient, good looking
and delicious meals into sources of
food poisoning.
There is a general deterioration in the
hygienic levels of vended foods in Accra, Kumasi and
other urban centres.
A number of food vendors in Accra operate
around areas where they have limited access to clean,
potable water and good toiletry facilities, and
sometimes are close by garbage mounds as well as open
gutters.
Additionally, most of them also engage in
practices that increase the spread of microbes. Majority
of these food vendors handle food with bare hands with a
few washing their hands during food handling.
There has been a scenario where
E. coli, a pathogenic considered dangerous to
children and the elderly is found in vended foods
indicating faecal contamination.
This arises through the use of contaminated
water, inferior food products,
poor hygiene of food vendors, and
through the help of
flies or other insects.
A study conducted by the
Food
Research Institute of the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research,
in collaboration with the National Resources of the
University of Greenwich and sponsored the
Department for International Development (DFID)
of UK, on safety, quality and economics of street vended
foods in Accra recently, revealed a worrying evidence
regarding the safety and quality of some the street
foods.
According to the study, 40% of
waakye samples contained heavy metal lead above the
Codex recommended maximum limit of 0.2mg/kg. Lead
contamination can result in learning difficulties and
behavioural problems in children. About 70% of
food samples contained the organophosphorous pesticide,
and chloropyriphos.
Even though, this was low, it said
non-hazardous levels of mycotoxins and the heavy metal
cadmium were detected in many of the street food
samples.
All food samples analyzed were below the
maximum aflatoxin levels recommended for foods for human
consumption by the European Union. Aflatoxins have also
been previously detected in fermented maize products,
such as kenkey. They are highly toxic fungal
metabolites.
The ingestion of these toxins can have a
deleterious impact on the health and productivity of man
and result in death when consumed in sufficiently high
quantities. Good quality maize should be made available
to food vendors.
The fact is that the street food sector
has not been accorded the needed the attention it
deserves by present and successive governments and
agencies entrusted with the responsibility of managing
the cities and maintaining hygiene and good sanitation,
such as the metropolitan, municipal and district
assemblies, the Food Research Institute, the Ghana
Standard Board and the Food and Drugs Board.
Although, a comprehensive data on the
food poisoning situation is not yet available, there
have been some media reports of people poisoned after
eating some street foods.
Ghanadot
