Registered products not a guarantee for advertisement – FDA

The Upper East Regional Office of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), says registration of products by the authority is not a guarantee for shop owners to advertise them.

The authority expressed concern about some advertisements on radio and television stations across the country and insisted that no product should be advertised unless such advertisements are approved by the FDA.

The FDA, through its Regulatory Officer 1 (RO 1), Mr Jiah Jiato Juah, said the FDA in its quest to sanitize the system to ensure public health and safety, demanded that adverts on products must also be approved.

Mr Juah was speaking at a training programme in Bolgatanga, organized by the FDA for supermarket and shop operators on good storage and distribution practices in the Region.

At the training, which was an interactive one, the operators were schooled on part seven of the Public Health Act 2012; Act 851.

Mr Juah told participants: “Before we allow you to go on air, you must present your advert for us to go through and give approval. Some people feel that once the product is registered, they can go on air.

“A product can be registered, but if your advert is not approved, you cannot go on air,” Mr Juah emphasised.

He said the FDA had challenges with some radio stations who argued that supermarket and shop operators came to them for adverts with their registration certificates and clarified that such certificates were specifically for the products and not for advertisement.

Mr Juah further emphasised that once operators had no advertisement certificates, it meant that their products could not be advertised.

He cautioned members of the public against advertisements for herbal medicines on the airwaves, saying, “Some of them are very dangerous. FDA doesn’t know about some of them.”

He said in order to lure members of the public to patronize the unregistered herbal medicines, they claim in adverts that the products and adverts were approved by the FDA.

The RO1said: “The FDA will never approve an advert that talks about the female or male sex organs. When you bring your advert, we vet it and remove such information.”

He said it was an offense for anyone to manufacture, label, package, sell or advertise food in a false, misleading, deceptive or misbranded, as its character, nature, value, additive, substance, quality, quantity, composition, merit or safety were against the law.

Mr Abel Ndego, the Acting Regional Head of the FDA, who addressed concerns of participants during the training, said the Authority issued fines to operators who violated the Public Health Act.

He admonished them to abide by the laws and regulations, noting that, “the law is so much at work that even officials of the FDA do not have control. So let us do the right thing. If you are not sure of anything, contact the FDA for guidance.”

Mr Ndego disclosed that there were some shops in the Bolgatanga municipality that contacted the FDA with lists of consignments they intended to order for the FDA’s advice and guidance.

He said the authority often vetted such lists of items to make decisions why some products could not be ordered.  

He cautioned the shop operators: “And so there are some shops that even if ten thousand regulators visit them, they will not be scared.

“So, you have to be very careful about how you engage in the kinds of commodities that you sell. The issue of non-registration and the sale of non-conforming products is serious when it comes to the law.”

Source: GNA

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