Ghana Web reports that food safety expert, Mr John Oppong-Otoo, has chastised the government for its failure to carry out sustained exposure assessments on food to ascertain the level of risk for all contaminants in food they consume.

Though exposure assessment has been done elsewhere in Ghana it is said to be limited, largely due to the unavailability of funds to carry out the research.

According to Mr Oppong-Otoo, who is also the CODEX Alimentarius Manager at the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), the risks associated with consuming unsafe food should prompt government to commission such a research.

“When we do the exposure assessments, we find out the levels that Ghanaians are exposed to. Then we compare it with a certain health-based value. If the exposure is higher then there is risk. An exposure assessment will form the basis of a risk management programme,” he said at a workshop on food safety for selected journalists in Accra.

The total number of outpatients reported cases of foodborne diseases in Ghana is about 420,000 per year, with an annual death rate estimated at 65,000 and total cost to the economy at US$69 million.