Ghana FDA Food Handler Test cheat sheet

Public Health Act, 2012 (Act 851) Part 6 covers food and food products: it prohibits the sale of unwholesome, adulterated, misbranded, or falsely labelled food and empowers inspectors to seize and condemn unsafe food.

Part 7 of Act 851 addresses drugs, cosmetics and medical devices, and Part 8 addresses enforcement, offences, penalties and inspection powers; food handlers are most directly governed by Part 6 plus the enforcement provisions.

Act 851 establishes the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) as the competent authority for food safety regulation in Ghana, with power to register food premises, license food businesses, inspect, sample, and prosecute.

The FDA Act, 2012 (Act 831) defines the Authority's functions, including product registration, premises registration, import/export control, and public education on food safety.

Ghana's food law applies a general safety requirement: food must not be injurious to health or unfit for human consumption, and the burden of proving safety rests with the person placing food on the market.

Food labelling rules under Act 851 and FDA guidelines require the name of the food, list of ingredients, net quantity, name and address of manufacturer or packer, country of origin, date marking, and storage instructions where relevant.

Misbranding includes false or misleading claims, missing required label information, and imitation foods presented as genuine; it is an offence independent of whether the food is actually unsafe.

Enforcement tools include improvement notices, prohibition notices, seizure, destruction of unfit food, fines, and imprisonment; food business operators may also face closure for repeat or serious violations.

The precautionary principle and the farm-to-fork approach underpin FDA policy: control is applied at production, processing, storage, distribution, retail and catering stages, not only at the point of sale.

A food service establishment must hold a valid FDA premises registration/licence before operating; operating without one is an offence under Act 851 and grounds for closure.

Licensing is premises-specific: a licence covers the registered address and the food activities declared; a change of location, ownership, or scope of food handling requires notification and re-registration.

The licence is time-limited and must be renewed before expiry; renewal normally follows a satisfactory inspection, so inspection history directly affects licence continuity.

Applications require details of the business, owner/manager, premises layout, water source, waste disposal arrangements, staff list, and evidence of medical screening of food handlers.

Food handlers must hold a valid medical certificate of fitness (food handler's certificate) obtained after screening for typhoid, hepatitis A, and other communicable conditions as specified by the FDA and Ghana Health Service.

Premises design requirements include adequate potable water, hand-washing facilities with soap, separate or properly sequenced toilet facilities, washable surfaces, pest-proofing, and adequate ventilation.

The FDA may suspend or revoke a licence for serious or repeated hygiene failures, obstruction of inspectors, or failure to comply with an improvement notice.

Inspectors have powers of entry at reasonable times (and at any time in an emergency) to inspect premises, take samples, examine records, and question staff; refusal to admit an inspector is itself an offence.

Registration records and inspection reports must be kept available on the premises and produced on request; record-keeping is a licensable condition, not an optional administrative task.

The temperature danger zone is 5 °C to 60 °C; bacteria multiply fastest between about 20 °C and 50 °C, so hot food is held above 60 °C and cold food below 5 °C.

The two-hour/four-hour rule: ready-to-eat food held in the danger zone for under 2 hours may be refrigerated or used; 2–4 hours means use immediately; over 4 hours it must be discarded.

Cool food rapidly by dividing into shallow containers, using ice baths or blast chilling; a large pot left to cool at room temperature passes through the danger zone too slowly.

Reheating must raise the food to at least 74 °C throughout, and leftovers should be reheated only once; repeated reheating increases bacterial load and toxin risk.

Hand washing must use soap and running water for at least 20 seconds, covering palms, backs, between fingers, thumbs, and under nails, then drying with a disposable towel.

Hands must be washed before handling food, after using the toilet, after handling raw meat or poultry, after touching the face or money, after waste handling, and after coughing or sneezing.

Cross-contamination is prevented by colour-coded chopping boards, separate utensils for raw and ready-to-eat food, and storing raw meat below cooked food in refrigerators.

Cleaning removes visible soil and grease using detergent; disinfection then reduces microorganisms to a safe level using an approved chemical at its correct dilution and contact time.

Effective pest control combines proofing (screens, door sweeps, sealed gaps), sanitation (no food debris or standing water), and monitoring; chemical pesticides must be applied so food is not contaminated.

Biological hazards - bacteria, viruses, parasites, moulds and their toxins - cause the majority of foodborne illness; Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli O157, Listeria, Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens are key bacterial examples.

Chemical hazards include cleaning chemicals, pesticides, veterinary drug residues, mycotoxins such as aflatoxin, heavy metals, and allergens; allergens are managed as a chemical-type hazard requiring labelling and separation.

Physical hazards include glass, metal fragments, stones, bone, hair, insects, and packaging material; controls are foreign-body detection, supplier checks, and maintenance of equipment and premises.

Aflatoxin from Aspergillus flavus in poorly stored groundnuts and maize is a major Ghanaian chemical hazard, controlled by drying to safe moisture, proper storage, and sorting out mouldy kernels.

High-risk foods are those that support bacterial growth: cooked rice, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, eggs, cooked pulses, and cut fruit; they need strict time and temperature control.

Spore-formers such as Bacillus cereus in cooked rice and Clostridium perfringens in stews survive normal cooking; holding food warm for long periods allows spores to germinate and multiply.

Staphylococcus aureus is carried on skin and in the nose; it is transferred by hand contact and produces a heat-stable toxin, so reheating does not make the food safe.

Hepatitis A and norovirus are viral hazards spread by infected food handlers and contaminated water; they are not destroyed by freezing and require exclusion of ill staff and safe water.

Hazard analysis ranks risk by likelihood and severity; critical control points are the steps (cooking, chilling, hot holding, metal detection) where a measurable limit prevents, eliminates, or reduces a significant hazard.

A food complaint record should capture the complainant's details, product name, batch or lot code, date and place of purchase, nature of the defect, and any illness reported.

Suspect food associated with a complaint must be quarantined and labelled 'do not use' pending investigation; it must not be returned to sale or discarded before the authority has been informed.

The FDA operates a food safety alert and recall system; recalls are classified by severity, with Class I covering products likely to cause serious illness or death and requiring the fastest, widest notification.

A recall requires a documented traceability trail, notification to distributors and the FDA, retrieval of affected stock, and verification that the recall was effective.

Under Act 851, a person who becomes aware that food is unsafe or has been recalled must not sell or distribute it, and food business operators have a duty to notify the Authority.

Monitoring includes checking supplier certificates, delivery temperatures, batch codes, expiry dates, and in-house sampling; results outside specification trigger a hold and investigation.

Complaint trends must be reviewed periodically; a cluster of similar complaints about one product or supplier is an early signal of a systemic safety failure.

Adverse event and illness reports should be passed to the FDA promptly, with the product sample retained and stored correctly, because the sample may be needed for laboratory analysis.