The Public Relations Officer (PRO), Kwasi Kwarteng has insisted that the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) certified the alleged expired rice before they were distributed to the various secondary schools.
According to him, it is therefore inaccurate for anyone to suggest that secondary school students have been fed with unwholesome rice.
Speaking in an interview on TV3’s News360 on November 18, Mr Kwarteng said, “The FDA is the agency responsible for approval food consumed in the country. It has declared that the rice was wholesome and safe for consumption.”
Mr Kwarteng said this in reaction to a call by the NDC caucus in Parliament for a commission of inquiry into circumstances leading to the distribution of supposedly expired bags of rice to some secondary schools,
The opposition MPs, led by North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, argue that the Ministry of Education cannot be trusted to conduct an impartial probe into the matter.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has therefore called for urgent national medical screening of all senior high schools students who have ingested the “contaminated rice”.
“We would like to use this medium to wake up respectfully all those institutions particularly the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health who have been silent on this matter so far. There is the need for an urgent national medical screening exercise, and we would endorse that,” Ablakwa stated.
However, Mr Kwarteng said no wrongdoing has been done on the part of Lamens Ventures, the company responsible for distributing the rice. He admitted though that FDA sanctioned Lamen’s Ventures for re-bagging the rice without approval.
”To address concerns from schools regarding the rice’s perceived expiry date, Lamens Ventures submitted a formal request to the FDA, dated 9th February 2024, seeking approval to re-bag the remaining stock to reflect the updated shelf life. They did not have approval to re-bag, that is why the FDA slapped a fine on them,” he explained.
