Food Division

The Food Division is one of the two Divisions of the Board, set up by the Food and Drugs Law (PNDCL 305B).

The Food Division contributes to the attainment of the functions of the Food and Drugs Board for safeguarding public health and safety by ensuring that all food products meet the appropriate standards of safety and quality by evaluating all samples submitted in the registration process, inspection, and meeting labelling requirements.

The Food Division is also mandated to undertake inspection of food or systems for control of food, raw materials, processing and distribution, including in-process and finished product testing, in order to verify conformance to Good Manufacturing Practices. Moreover, the Division ensures that all imported and locally produced food products are of good quality and wholesome.

The activities of the Division are carried out by two specialized departments and supported by six operational units.

Food Safety and Nutrition Department

The Food Safety and Nutrition Department is made up of the following operational units:

• Food Product Evaluation and Registration Unit.
• Food Safety and Management Unit.
• Food Standards Unit
  

Food Product Evaluation and Registration Unit

The major functions of the Unit are:

• Registering food products.
• Evaluating of food product labels to ensure conformance to the labelling law.
• Conducting evaluation meetings for food product approval.

Food Safety and Management Unit.

The principal functions of the Unit include:

• Assisting local food manufacturers/processors in the implementation of food safety management system such as the HACCP system..
• Conducting Food Safety Audits.
• Conducting training programmes for manufacturers or processors, staff of the hospitality sector, catering ,schools etc.
• Conducting activities to create food safety awareness among consumers
• Representing the Board on stakeholder committees on food safety.

Food Standards Unit

The Unit was set up in the last quarter of 2003. The principal function of the Unit is to make available the appropriate food standards as contained in the Food and Drugs Law (PNDCL 305B) to augment the work of the Food Division. The specific functions are:

• Developing regulations, guidelines, Codes of Practice governing the packaging, labelling, advertising, and the control of food in general.
• Ensuring the availability of relevant food standards or reference documents to facilitate the evaluation of food products by the Food Evaluation and Registration Unit.
• Specifying what constitute adulteration in any food.
• Providing information on the status of food additives or any substance used as an ingredient in any food.
• Periodically organising seminars as a means of educating or keeping Officers of the Board abreast on issues pertaining to food safety and food regulation.

Food Inspectorate Department

The Food Inspectorate Department under the Food Division is mandated to undertake inspection of food or systems for control of food, raw materials, processing and distribution, including in-process and finished product testing, in order to verify that they conform to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). The Department undertakes three types of inspections, namely, Food Premises inspections, Food Destination inspections, and Food Audit inspections.

The functions of the Department are carried out by the following operational Units:

• Veterinary Unit
• Premises Inspection Unit
• Post-Market Surveillance Unit
  
  Veterinary Unit
  The main functions of the Unit are:
  
  
• Registering all slaughter facilities.
• Licensing feed mills.
• Routinely inspecting feed mills’ warehouses to ensure Good Warehouse Practices (GWP), and good manufacturing practices (GMP).
• Routinely inspecting slaughter facilities to ensure good slaughtering and processing practices (GSPP).
• Inspecting veterinary medicine warehouses to ensure good warehouse practices (GWP).
  
  Food Premises Inspection Unit
  The major functions of the Unit include:
  
  
• Inspecting food manufacturing premises for registration.
• Routine inspecting food manufacturing premises to ensure current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).
  Food Post-Market Surveillance Unit
  The Unit undertakes the following functions to contribute to the achievements of the Food Inspectorate Department:
  
  
• Inspecting food storage facilities to ensure compliance to Good Warehouse/Cold store Practices (GWP/GCP).
• Inspecting retail outlets and their storage accessories to ensure compliance to Good Retail Practices (GRP).
• Monitoring and regulating advertisements of food products.
• Destruction of unwholesome food products.
• Investigating consumer complaints and any other relevant query regarding to food products.
• Monitoring food product registration and quality status on the Ghanaian market.