A three-member team of auditors from the Food and Veterinary Office of the European Union (EU) is in Ghana to assess the quality of Ghana’s vegetables. The audit will enable the EU office on food safety to reconsider a three-year-old embargo on vegetables export from Ghana to the EU Market. The auditors who are expected to end their duty tour by Saturday, September 21, 2017, will among other things thoroughly assess the sanitary and phytosanitary systems in Ghana required for ensuring the safety of food items and fresh produce. The acting Director, Plant Protection and Regulations Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr Eric Quaye, disclosed this at a forum organised by the Ghanaian-German Economic Association (GGEA) in Accra last Wednesday. He said the country had taken steps to upgrade its sanitary and phytosanitary systems and infrastructure in order to reverse the ban on exports of five vegetables-capsicum, solanum species-aubergines, momordica, luffa and lagenaria (gourd family)-after failing an assessment in 2015 due to high levels of interceptions in the EU Market. Mr Quaye expressed the confidence that the country would pass the audit following robust measures deployed to correct anomalies in the system.

Source: FreshPlaza