I must confess, the first time I tasted it “naked” was in 1995 at Sakyikrom, a village near Nsawam at the 3rd All African Scout Jamboree. I have since fallen in love with the salt-less taste of the” Fante kenkey”.
As leader of the “Elephant Troop” at the Jamboree, I was expected to show leadership in making the best out of what was available at the 10 days camp in the tickets of the Nsawam forests and as a first timer in the area too, I had initial difficulties with eating some of the local food. I however found it an opportunity to learn the best from other communities I have never visited outside the sandy beaches of Keta, my hometown.
I threw myself to the challenge and encouraged my troop members to do same as many of us were new to this kind of salt-less kenkey boiled in plantain leaves, called the “fante kenkey”.
Many years on, I have come to love this kind of kenkey as a better alternative to others owing to the nutritional value contained in the plantain leaves that gives the kenkey it’s the dark brown colour and acts as a good preservative.
This distinct colour and taste of the fante kenkey has however changed and worse of all, becoming dangerous and cancerous to consumers lately.
Almost everywhere on the streets, kiosks, shops, supermarkets and along the main Tarkoradi-Accra Highway where it is produced in abundance, a strange and recent development that confronts any consumer of the product is the unholy sight of polythene bag wrapped around and boiled with the kenkey before it is sold out.
In as much as some might find this new packaging trend a “sexy” innovation, I think the inherent danger it poses to unsuspecting patrons of the fante kenkey consumed as “mashed-kenkey” or for regular breakfast , lunch or supper cannot be over emphasized.
I am informed that the contact of polythene to anything edible under high temperatures and worse still, at boiling point renders the food substance toxic and dangerous for human consumption. We are encouraged to avoid as much as possible taking hot porridge, tea, hot beverages and anything edible from polythene bags and wrappers as the contact to polythene poisons the food.
I am sure many of the cooks and sellers of the fante-kenkey are ignorant to the dangers they are imposing on us as consumers.
A few weeks ago, I had to dispose of some balls of fante kenkey I bought off the Cape Coast-Kasoa road because the polythene bag wrapped around the kenkey would not just peel off. I got so alarmed about the millions of toxins I might have already consumed from earlier meals and was just about to consume that I opted going to bed famished than to eat something that is obviously poisonous.
On a daily basis, quantities fante-kenkey are sold to the public, we are then forced to consume what is available to the public and unconsciously draw ourselves closer and closer to the life-threatening scalpel of the surgeon.
I recall the ordeal of one young man who bought a ball of fante-kenkey sometime ago, and shockingly discovered a pair of scarlet female thongs in the kenkey. He was so traumatized that he vowed never to eat his favourite fante kenkey in his life time.
The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) have been doing well in ensuring that unwholesome food and drug products are taken off the shelves and the public encouraged not to consume these food and drug products. I wish to see the Food and Drugs Board take the fight to fante-kenkey sellers to outlaw the use of rubber polythene in the preparation, wrapping and packaging of the fante-kenkey immediately.
To be able to effectively outlaw this dangerous practice of boiling our favourite fante kenkey with polythene bags, these traders and sellers of the product must be educated on the dangers their actions pose to society and on our health so that they can understand the need to stop the practice. I presume that once they come to the understanding that the wholesomeness of the food is adulterated with the introduction of poisonous chemicals from these polythene bags, they will adopt safer measures in engaging in their business while maintaining the quality of the kenkey.
The Food and Drugs Board (FDB), in order to deal decisively with this matter, must work through the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and Community Health Nurses , not forgetting the Community Nursing module of the National Youth Employment Programme to bring a radical change and settle this matter permanently without any backlash from the traders and the communities to the central government.
I really love my fante kenkey “naked”, and I guess you do too.
