Food and drinks at Marwako branches were contaminated – FDA says

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has given a public update on the alleged food poisoning incident reported at the East Legon branch of Marwako Food Limited last month.

Investigations have so far shown that samples of food, juice drinks and swaps taken from the eatery and its other branches at Abelempke and La were “heavily contaminated”.

In a statement, the FDA said “the levels of sanitation and hygiene in the food preparation areas in all three facilities were poor.”

“The temperature of deep freezers and refrigerators were far above the acceptable ranges. The handling practices of ingredients used in cooking, cooled and ready-to-eat food items were also very poor,” a statement from the FDA said.

It has assured that it will continually monitor activities at the various branches to ensure compliance with FDA’s directives and applicable regulatory requirements.

All branches of the Marwako Restaurant were closed down some weeks ago after some customers complained of falling ill after eating at their branch in East Legon, Accra.

The complaints were sparked by one Edward Elohim, who posted about his illness after eating at Mawarko.

Meanwhile, the FDA bemoaned how their efforts to establish the root cause of the contamination had been hampered by “the unapproved and unilateral decision of Marwako to destroy some food items” in the course of the investigation.

It however said it has “applied the appropriate regulatory sanctions and is also monitoring the implementation of the corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) by the management of Marwako Fast Foods to address all the non-conformances identified to prevent any reoccurrence.”