Agbogbloshie Market: Sitting on a time bomb of filth

By Doreen Allotey

The sequel to a bad story often has a happy ending. Unfortunately in the case of the Agbogbloshie market located in Central Accra, it is a worsening scenario about which buyers must beware.
But this market performs such a critical role in the food distribution chain of the people of Accra that no effort must be spared to bring the conditions there to acceptable standards. Agbogbloshie is the supply point of most foodstuffs sold in the satellite markets of the city and only few households can claim not to prepare food sourced directly or indirectly from this market.
In an earlier article published in the Daily Graphic of September 17 this year with the headline “Agbogbloshie Market: The good, the bad and the ugly” a number of observations and recommendations were made.
One of them was that the insanitary conditions in the market posed a serious health problem to customers and consumers and that the city authorities should take serious steps to improve conditions in the market.
It was recommended also that there should be regular visits by food inspectors and that the displaying of food items such as oranges, plantains etc. on the bare floor should be prohibited . It was recommended that the Ghana Standards Board should re-introduce to the women, education on the advantages of weights and measures as an alternative to tins like the olonka and baskets which are stuffed with all manner of things.
Thankfully, the Accra Metropolitan Authority responded by announcing a decongestion exercise that was to involve the demolition of illegal structures. Others like the Makola and Kaneshie markets where the situation is virtually the same were to benefit from similar decongestion exercises. The decongestion was to be a general one to bring some order and sanity in the city. Unfortunately, the exercise was met with a storm of protests from the market vendors. Women in the Kaneshie market were even alleged to have chased the Chief executive Officer of the AMA, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, away from the market with urine! Worse still, it is obvious that the political will to continue with the exercise is absent.
The Food and Drugs Board also run a workshop on food safety for food vendors in the market. FDB also plans to certify food vendors in the market by 2011.
I went back to the market to observe if there had been an improvement after the actions taken by the AMA and FDB. The situation is the same.
Of much concern is the sale of exposed semi-processed powdered food items such as gari, kokonte and sugar in the current environment of the dusty harmattan weather.
With some training on sampling from the FDB and some coaching from , a food safety consultancy, I took some random sterile samples of gari, kokonte and sugar at the market in triplicates.
The samples were sent to a food and beverage laboratory where each sample was tested.
The results were astounding. Except sugar which did not show infection for all its samples, gari and kokonte showed very heavy infection of bacteria and fungi in the form of moulds.
“Some of the growths would suggest the presence of Aspergilus species that produce chemicals called toxins which can cause food poisoning”, Mr George Berko, the microbiologist who worked on the samples said.
On the evidence of the undesirable habits that persist and the quality of exposed food products, food consumers are at risk. For a food item such as gari that can be eaten cold in the form of “soakings” the risk of food poisoning is real.
According to Mr Berko, “the heat of cooking may kill the microbes but the danger is that toxins are not eliminated by heat and do stay in the food even after cooking.” Indeed, there have been instances when people suffered from food poisoning after a meal of kokonte.
One wonders why such products are not packaged as we see them displayed on supermarket shelves. It is also not clear what type of education FDB carried out in the market. The sight of women selling semi-processed food items with their heads uncovered was common. Any stray piece of hair in food could cause allergy in consumers, a condition or illness shown as itching, swelling and general nausea.
In the course of enquiries about food safety it was not clear which regulatory body was responsible for laying down the standards of items sold in the market. Is it the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) GSB or Food and Drugs Board (FDB)? In one moment there was a statement like, “That’s not our responsibility; go to FDB” from GSB. At another moment we are told, “Go to GSB; it is their responsibility”
Therefore on FDB’s intention to certify food vendors, one wonders on whose standards the certification will be based. In view of the uncertainty that seems to exist between GSB and FDB on responsibilities, collaboration between the two institutions is necessary in laying down standards.
Specialists at NAMS have stressed that the standards must include the procedures on how the food is packaged and the level of sanitation of the surroundings and the health status of the vendors.
Education to the vendors must be on-going and not a one-day affair and vendors who will be found to be infringing the food safety laws must be banned from the market.
The earlier recommendations of September 17, 2009 are still valid.
The AMA must not only demolish unauthorised structures but actually regulate the number of vendors. It appears that AMA is only too eager to collect tolls from anybody desiring to sell in this market.
The defence the vendors put up during any decongestion exercise is, “We have every right to sell here because we pay daily tolls. We don’t have anywhere to go.” Congestion is about structures and human numbers. The AMA should therefore regulate numbers through licensing.
For a comprehensive research, it is recommended that a more rigorous survey be carried out on semi-processed food items in our markets as a basis for the intended certification of the vendors.
It is further recommended that food packaging standards, once instituted, be enforced.
The role that Agbogbloshie, and indeed any market, plays in our life are so important that standards and hygiene cannot be compromised.