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Evaluation of the food safety and quality management systems of the cottage food manufacturing industry in Ghana

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 101; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.02.028

1873-7129

Benjamin Osei Tutu, Paulina Oforiwaa Anfu,

Food Safety and Hygiene

The cottage food industry in Ghana is an integral part of the food delivery system, where food processing and distribution in the country are strongly influenced by the operations of the cottage food industry. Therefore, to protect public health and safety, there is the need for the cottage food industry in Ghana to have systems that will assure the safety of the food produced. This paper evaluated the Food Safety and/or Quality Management Systems of the cottage food manufacturing industry and sought to identify their challenges in its implementation. Questionnaires were self-administered to owners, managers or supervisors of 200 companies in the cottage food industry across the ten regions of Ghana. The results of the survey indicated that most of the cottage food manufacturing companies (84.0%) did not have any form of Food Safety Management System (FSMS) in place. Those with some form of Food Safety Management System were either operating based on ISO 22000 standards (0.5%) or Good Manufacturing Practices (15.5%). Majority of the cottage food manufacturing companies (71.0%) were sited within private residential premises where residential facilities were shared. Some of the challenges encountered by the cottage food industry in implementing their FSMS are issues related to the conduct of testing on packaging materials prior to use (97.0% of the industry), not having safety or quality points in processing operations (94.5% of the industry) and challenge was with specifications for raw materials (56.5% of the industry). These major challenges encountered by the cottage food manufacturing companies in implementing Food Safety Management System is as a result of inadequate knowledge on processes that has food safety implications as well as infrastructure and appropriate processing equipment requirements. The Food Safety Management System employed by the cottage food industry in Ghana therefore needs to be strengthened through capacity and infrastructural investment to assure safe food delivery.