A United Kingdom (UK) trained Public Health Specialist has cautioned the Government of Liberia to setup a food regulatory board in order to get all food entering Liberia examined. The Country Representative for Life for African Mothers (LFAM), a UK based organization, Abdul-rahmanFayiah Bah, said if a food regulatory authority or board is established, it will curtail many of those substandard and expired foods landing into the country and will help the citizens keep healthy.
He accentuated that 90% of foods and drinks entering the soil of Liberia are not scrutinized and many of those are not of standard while some are also expired to be consumed by the citizenry.
According him, this could cause serious health hazard to the struggling public if something is not done swiftly.
He said expired, substandard and contaminated food create food poison, which is a health complication matter that may not be easy to handle by government and its partners; and that this situation creates serious economic and financial destitution to the nation and people.
He said, many of those sicknesses that are hammering people now, are due to the kind of foods ingest.
He asserted that some business entities in the country are selling and advertising food and drinks without testing it, making the public to believe that they are selling the right product.
“Liberia needs a Food Regulatory body or board to help save the nation from expired, substandard and contaminated food and drinks,” Bah said, pointing out that there are business entities here that are involved in importing and producing such foods and drinks to create more sickness for our people” he maintained.
He added that this can only be curtailed when the National government can create a food regulatory board to examine all foods and drinks coming into the country and even those that are produced here.
The university lecturer disclosed a two day Global Engineering Symposium at the University College of London which ran from July 9-10, 2019. He took some of those food and drinks with him for test at one of the best laboratories, many of them were substandard for human use and some were expired and contaminated.
The London symposium brought together global health experts to create innovations that will tackle large amount of global health issues. These innovations, he said, take into accounts in new technologies, social, political, Cultural and economic factors.
Naming few of the drinks and foods, the medical practitioner pointed at bitter coal drinks (alcohol and non-alcohol) and some of those locally made, imported alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Others are rice, chicken, Maggie cube and salt among many that are imported and produced here not good for human consumption and can develop serious health complications.
“When established the regulatory body that would determine the best food and drinks for public consumption,” maintained, saying that these are some of the underlining factors of obesity, hypertension diabetes and other major health conditions. If not attend to, it will cause casualties for this generation and generations to come,” he concluded.
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