Food Protection Trends - July/August 2022 - 306

to determine the duration of the audit. The results obtained
from the pretest were used in revising the checklist.
Ethical clearance
Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional
Review Board of the Ethics Committee for Basic and Applied
Sciences, University of Ghana.
Audit
The selected live bird processing and retail points were
visited once during normal operational days of the week to
allow the observation of their normal processes. Permissions
were sought from the heads of the LBMs or cottage farms to
carry out the audit. Each facility that participated in the study
was visited once on a normal business day. In addition, the
head of each facility confirmed that the observations made
were typical of their operations. Face-to-face interviews and
physical observations of their activities were carried out.
Although the audit checklist was designed in English, it was
administered in both English and Twi (the local language).
Data analysis
Frequency of compliance in each grade category was
determined. Associations between hygienic practices and
compliance were analyzed using Pearson's chi-square test of
significance at an alpha level of 0.05 using SPSS version 23.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The hygiene audit was an assessment of the establishment
of hygiene systems by informal poultry processors to ensure
food safety. Evidently, the general hygiene compliance of the
visited facilities was poor, as shown in Figure 1, where most
facilities have a conditional rating or an unsatisfactory rating.
About 9.1% of the respondent facilities had satisfactory compliance
with the Codex's hygiene guidelines, whereas 90.9%
of the LBMs required major revisions to achieve satisfactory
or full compliance. Similarly, in a study by Ovai et al. (12),
respondents exhibited poor food safety practices during their
processing operations, which was largely influenced by insufficient
food safety knowledge.
Licensing and certification
Every food business in Ghana is required to obtain a
GFDA license for the business facility and a food handler's
certificate for their food processors. Certification and
licensing from the GFDA ensures accountability on the part
of the business operators, which in turn creates consumer
confidence in the quality and safety of the product (3). No
facilities audited in this study was licensed by the GFDA.
Most cottage food operatives in Ghana do not meet the basic
requirement to be licensed by regulatory agencies. Most
of them operate with permits given by the Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Assemblies to conduct small-scale
businesses in the open markets. These permits do not have
requirements for food quality and safety; instead, the permit
covers monthly dues or daily tickets for business operation in
the open market.
Only 1 of the 11 facilities had satisfactory compliance
in this category. This is because they were halfway through
the licensing process and most processors within the
establishment had the food handler's certificate. However,
in 90.9% of the LBMs audited, the operators were unaware
of the need to acquire food handler certificates, so none
of the operators in those facilities had one. In some cases,
Figure 1. Overall performance of facilities in compliance with the Codex's code of hygienic practices.
306 Food Protection Trends July/August

Food Protection Trends - July/August 2022

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