Conference Abstract | Volume 9, Abstract 0008 (ConfProc7) | Published: 24 Mar 2026
Lloyd Owura Kofi Adu-Kumi1,&, Belinda Nsiah Opoku2
1Food and Drugs Authority, Accra, Ghana, 2Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana
&Corresponding author: Lloyd Owura Adu-Kumi, Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, University of Ghana School of Public Health, Accra, Ghana, Email: lloyd.adu-kumi@fda.gov.gh, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2433-3077
Received: 10 Aug 2025, Accepted: 28 Oct 2025, Published: 24 Mar 2026
Domain: Public Health Nutrition
This is part of the Proceedings of the 8th Ghana FELTP Scientific Conference and FELTP Competency Graduation, Accra, Ghana, 10 – 11 December, 2025
Keywords: Good Hygiene, Inspection, Restaurant, Food Business, Ghana
©Lloyd Owura Kofi Adu-Kumi et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Lloyd Owura Kofi Adu-Kumi et al. Tracking good hygiene practice compliance among food service establishments, Greater Accra Region, Ghana, 2020 – 2024. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2026;9(ConfProc7):0008. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO7-0008
From 2020 to 2024, Ghana recorded 38 foodborne illness outbreaks affecting 1,622 people with 24 deaths, largely due to poor food hygiene. To address poor food hygiene practices, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) inspects Food Service Establishments (FSEs) to assess Good Hygiene Practice (GHP) compliance and issues Food Hygiene Permits (FHPs) to compliant FSEs. To promote data-driven decision-making, we described the distribution of inspections done according to FSE types and districts, assessed the annual compliance rates and determined whether the FDA met its target of licensing at least 60% of FHP applicants.
A descriptive cross-sectional analysis of GHP compliance among FSEs in the Greater Accra Region (GAR) was conducted using 2020 to 2024 data from the Food Service Establishment Department’s (FSED) food register. Data cleaning was performed using Python 3.9 (Jupyter Notebook 7.2.2). Frequencies and percentages were calculated using Epi Info 7. Maps were generated in QGIS 3.44.2. Annual compliance rates, defined as the proportion of compliant FSEs among FHP applicants, were compared to the 60% target.
From 2020 to 2024, 3,280 FSEs were inspected. Restaurants comprised the majority, 57.9% (1,900/3,280). Ayawaso West District recorded the highest proportion of inspected FSEs, 13.4% (438/3,280), while Shai Osudoku recorded the lowest, 0.03% (1/3,280). Overall, 2,646 FHPs were issued. From 2020 to 2024, annual FSE applicant compliance rates for each year were 78.9% (225/285), 60.5% (181/299), 47.1% (450/955), 64.6% (726/1,165), and 63.1% (991/1,643), respectively.
The restaurant type of FSE and the Ayawaso West District were the most inspected. Compliance rates generally increased over the years, with the 60% target achieved in all years except 2022. The FDA should set location-specific targets to ensure that FSE regulation is representative across GAR.
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