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Health alert: Stop packing hot, oily foods in plastic bags
Ghanaians have been advised to desist from packaging hot or oily foods with plastic bags as it posed serious health implications.
Speaking at an event to mark World Food Safety Day in Accra last Tuesday, Professor Esther Sakyi-Dawson, Associate Professor of Food Science, University of Ghana, cautioned that transfer of harmful substances from the plastics into food could be linked to many chronic illnesses that was fast increasing in the country.
“The ingestion of these chemicals can affect the endocrine, hormonal, and immune systems of the human body. It is, therefore, dangerous to consume an oily or hot meal like banku, wrapped in these plastics,” she warned.
Prof. Sakyi-Dawson said not every plastic bag are to be used for foods due to the chemicals used in processing it.
“For example, the black ones generally are used to carry things. You should not put your food into it because they are non-food grade and it must not have direct contact with your food; same with the white polythenes,” she explained.
“While proposing a ban on such low-grade, non-food grade plastics, the Food Scientist encouraged Ghanaians to lookout for food-grade plastics which are often thick to use for food packaging and storage when necessary.
“The onus is on the consumer to make the right decision on the use of these plastics for their own health and life. Take your life into your hands and make the right decisions concerning what goes into your body,” she advised.
This year’s World Food Safety Day was on the theme: ‘Food Safety: Science in Action,’ emphasising the vital role that scientific knowledge plays in ensuring food safety and building trust in the food supply.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 600 million people suffer from foodborne illnesses and more than 400,000 deaths occur in a year from food contamination.
In Africa, at least 91 million people suffer from foodborne diseases annually, accounting for a third of the global deaths, with 40 per cent occurring in children below five.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH