The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) is to ban the use of celebrities and super stars in the advertisement of food and alcoholic beverages. The Board will also issue strict regulations concerning food labelling and marketing, all in an attempt to protect public health.
The head of the Food Inspectorate Department Kofi Essel who disclosed this to XYZ News said the Board is waiting for a presidential accent on the Public Health Bill to carry out the ban.
The Food and Drugs Board issued a ban on the advertisement of some alcoholic beverages some five years ago but the Board was directed by the court to rescind its decision.
The court was of the opinion that there was no policy giving the Board the power to ban alcoholic advertisement. Mr. Essel says the Public Health Bill will give it the necessary teeth to bite.
According to the FDB, “children cannot be allowed to eat anything and everything”, hence the need to ensure that such edibles are prevented from being advertised.
Among the issues that will seriously targeted are Live Presenter Mentions (LPM) on food products and drugs which have inundated the media.
Accoridng to Mr. Essel, people should make their money’s responsibly so that nobody suffers unnecessarily from it.
The issue of food advertisement have become a serious debate with the latest findings by the Nutrition and Food Science Department that obesity is a major problem in children especially in urban areas.
Source: GhanaWeb
