Ghana’s food safety gaps came under scrutiny on Saturday as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly used World Food Safety Day to call for concrete action from vendors, businesses, and regulators, with new WHO estimates suggesting the global toll of unsafe food may be far larger than previously understood.
World Food Safety Day is observed on 7 June each year and is jointly led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This year’s theme, “From Burden to Solutions: Safe Food Everywhere,” places particular emphasis on the role of data in shaping food safety priorities and policy.
Central to the 2026 campaign is the release of updated WHO estimates of the foodborne disease burden, including first-ever national estimates of illness, death, and public health burden covering data from 2000 to 2021, which will be accompanied by an interactive dashboard. The AMA’s Public Health Director, Florence Kuukyi, cited two rounds of those estimates in her statement. The established figures put global foodborne illness at 600 million cases and 420,000 deaths each year, with children under five disproportionately affected. The newer estimates, drawn from the forthcoming WHO report, put the toll at up to 866 million illnesses and 1.52 million deaths annually.
Kuukyi said Ghana and the wider African region face persistent food safety failures including poor handling practices, unsafe water in food preparation, improper storage, pesticide residues, and food adulteration. She warned that rapid urbanisation and climate change were adding to the contamination risk and straining public health systems already under pressure.
She directed specific calls to each link in the food chain. Vendors were urged to maintain personal hygiene and prevent cross-contamination. Food businesses were told to implement traceability systems and train staff regularly. Consumers were advised to buy from approved sources and report suspected illness promptly. Government agencies and regulators were called on to strengthen surveillance, enforce inspection systems, and invest in food safety infrastructure.
“Every safe meal served is a disease outbreak prevented,” Kuukyi said. “The burden of foodborne diseases is largely avoidable when all actors work together.”
The AMA has not published a corresponding enforcement schedule or inspection target for Accra’s food vending sector alongside the statement.
