Mrs Deles Mimi Darko, CEO of the FDA
There is no plastic rice on the Ghanaian market contrary to social media reports and videos spreading rumours of its existence in the country.
This is according to the chief executive officer of the food and drugs authority (FDA) Mrs Deles Mimi Darko. She was speaking at a press conference on Friday in Accra to debunk rumours of plastic rice in Ghana circulating in the media and to assure the general public of the safety of rice products on the Ghanaian market.
“Using our nation-wide market surveillance program, we obtained random samples After hearing the rumours and seeing the videos that are circulating on social media. The FDA then went ahead to request members of the public to submit samples of the rumoured plastic rice or provide information as to where it could be found’ Mrs Darko explained.
“We subjected all these samples recieved for laboratory investigation”, She continued. “Results from the analyses indicated that all the samples were in fact, real authentic rice and not plastic”.
The food and drugs authority also revealed that they are working with the international food safety authority network (INFOSAN) whose investigations into the same rumour of fake plastic rice in other countries such as Singapore, Nigeria and Canada has revealed that all the rice in these countries are authentic and no plastic rice has been found anywhere in the world with the national agency for food and drug administration in Nigeria recently denying outrightly of the availability of fake plastic rice on their market after thorough investigations.
“The rumour of plastic rice is not peculiar to Ghana. The European food safety authority ranks this rumours of artificial plastic rice as the 9th of 13 emerging food risks in the world. This notwithstanding, the rumours of plastic rice have not been confirmed anywhere in the world”, the FDA assured.
The FDA, therefore, asked the general public to continue to consume and ignore rumours of plastic rice in Ghana since ‘’the physical and chemical properties of plastic is such that ordinarily they cannot be reconstituted into edible food because plastic cannot absorb or mix with water”.
A quick glance at the FDA website reveals a list of currently registered and safe food products including rice on the Ghanaian market among which are Gino Thai Jasmine Rice, Obaatan Pa Long Grain Rice, Ruby long grain Rice, cow boy rice, Jazz rice and so many others.
Kind regards.