The Ghana Public Health Association has tasked government to introduce a policy that would ensure only healthy food products are advertised on the airwaves.
Health authorities have observed that the surge in non-communicable diseases as well as cancer-related cases in the country are partly due to the kind of food consumed.
A coalition of government agencies (Ministry of Health, Food and Drugs Authority, National Development Planning Commission), Academia (University of Ghana) and Civil Society (Coalition of Actors for Public Health Advocacy) are currently working on a ‘Healthier Diets 4 Healthy Lives (HD4HL)’ project.
The HD4HL Project is intended to build evidence and mobilize multi-stakeholder action toward a policy bundle for healthier and more equitable consumer food environments that reduce the double burden of malnutrition.
At a walk through the principal streets of Kumasi to create public awareness on healthier diet, member of Ghana Public Health Association, James McKeown called for a tax relief for local companies that produce healthy food, to make such food affordable.
“Such health policies when implemented, will ensure that all locally manufactured and imported foods items have pack labels indicating amount of ingredients such as salt, sugar, etc, and other nutritional content in the products”, he said.
“We also want government to ensure that food bought for senior high schools are healthy”, he said.
By Nana Antwi Boasiako/Akoma FM