Food safety is a critical public health and economic concern as it can compromise the integrity of food systems to deliver nutritious food and promote wellbeing. This review was to synthesize findings from studies across all the regions to identify the major food safety threats and the most affected food sources in the Ghanaian food system. A comprehensive search for peer reviewed published literature (from January 2010–June 2025) was conducted on AGORA, PubMed and SCOPUS databases. Articles that centered around threats or barriers to safe and nutritious foods were included. A thematic synthesis was used to structure findings. Key findings indicate a widespread microbial contamination, particularly in ready-to eat foods, meats and beverages with frequent detection of Escherichia coli , Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and multi-drug resistant strains. Chemical hazards such as aflatoxins, pesticide residues, heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were the most prevalent threat in foods. Physical contaminants such as stones were reported in school meals. Contributing factors to these threats were poor knowledge levels and compliance with food hygiene, inadequate infrastructure, weak regulatory enforcement and low public awareness. There is the need to strengthen regulatory frameworks on food safety standards, expand public education on food safety and hygiene, promote good agricultural and manufacturing practices, invest in infrastructure for storage and processing, and implement surveillance systems to support sustainable food systems in Ghana.
Yeboah et al. (Thu,) studied this question.