The Status and Trends of Food Fraud in Tamale, Ghana

Despite its seriousness, food fraud has not received the necessary attention in Ghana’s discourse on safety. Food is generally considered as intentional misrepresentation of contents or identity for economic gain. The study was aimed at assessing awareness level participants well foods most likely to be implicated cases Tamale, Ghana. Data collected from 385 participants, including business operators and consumers, via a simple random sampling technique using structured questionnaire. Most (54%) were aware related activities before study. Beverages juices, fruits vegetables, spices, oils, meat fish, baked foods, honey, milk, semi-processed local such groundnut paste, "Dawadawa," “Kulikuli zim,” “Agushi powder” all revealed by respondents. Adulteration common action, but tampering, substitution, mislabeling also identified ongoing area. “Moora” (Bixa orellana seeds) key adulterant used foods. fraud, which threat consumer health well-being, active region predicted increase without strict regulation increased sensitization about dangers. fight against should refocused making defense systems like vulnerability analysis critical control points (VACCP) aspect safety tackle fraud.