The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has caused investigations into the alleged use of formalin to preserve food items particularly dried tilapia, ‘Koobi’.
Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, asked traders to stop using formalin to preserve food items since it was dangerous to human health.
He warned that using formalin for the preservation of the koobi would cause cancer.
According to him, formalin, which is a chemical used for the preservation of corpse is also being used by traders to preserve the fish; thus making it stiff, have a rubbery feel, clear eyes, red gills, and take away its odour as well as drive away flies.
Formalin is a colourless strong-smelling chemical substance usually used in industry of textiles, plastics, papers, paint, construction, and well known to preserve human corpse.
However, Head of Food Industrial Support Services department at FDA, Kofi Essel told Adom News that the authority was not informed before the issue was made public.
The FDA has since the breaking of the news dispatched its officers to commence investigatons to fish out the culprits.
Listen to Kofi Essel