The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has cautioned consumers of herbal medicine against purchasing products from hawkers and moving vehicles.

The FDA is advocating that consumers of herbal medicines purchase from stationary vendors who are licensed and easy to trace when people react to their products to enable the Authority to take the necessary action against such entities.

Speaking in an interview with Class FM’s Ashanti Regional correspondent on the sidelines of an in-service training organised for herbal medicine practitioners in Kumasi on Thursday, May 12, 2022, the Ashanti Regional Head of the FDA, John Odai-Tettey advised the practitioners to have their products registered.

“We needed to advise them and encourage them to register their products and to move away from the negative aspect of the work, especially how they advertise and sell with the case of the community information centers.

“Most products are not registered so they’re sold at dawn. That’s what we want them to move from. Our doors are open to help them technically and industrially. So when they come in, we give them the necessary help.”

Mr. Odai-Tettey revealed that some herbal medicine practitioners mix their products with orthodox medicines. “Yes it has been detected that some of their products get contaminated intentionally because they mix the orthodox medicines with the herbal ones, which makes it no longer herbal product and those are things we run after,” he noted.

He added that: “Only registered products should be purchased, secondly, products should not be purchased in moving vehicles and products should not be purchased from hawkers because when you have problems, you have no way of getting to those who sold them to you.

“So go to the prescribed places where medicines are sold, stationary places, licensed. Over there, when you have problems and you report to the Food and Drugs Authority, we’ll be able to take the appropriate action.”