Eight of 30 fruit and vegetable samples distributed through an Accra community food project contained E. coli, according to laboratory results reviewed by The Plausible Post. The project’s low-cost “ugly produce” scheme was set up to make misshapen food affordable; the findings suggest that some supplies may also have been washed with contaminated water.
The initiative, Second Basket, says it now moves about 1.8 tonnes (2.0 tons) of produce a week to roughly 740 households. It began in February, buying fruit and vegetables that traders described as visually imperfect and selling them at reduced prices. Residents’ questions about the condition of some deliveries prompted the sampling and a review of the project’s own records.
What the samples showed
A food microbiology laboratory in Cape Coast tested 30 samples collected in August from three Accra markets and two Second Basket preparation sites. E. coli was detected in eight; four samples had faecal-coliform counts above the lab’s screening threshold of 1,000 colony-forming units per gram. Water taken from two washing points also tested positive for E. coli.
The results do not establish that anyone became ill, and they do not show that misshapen produce is inherently unsafe. The laboratory did not test every batch or identify a single source of contamination. Its lead analyst, Aitana Casas, said the results instead indicated a need to check washing water, containers and handling practices before food is distributed.
“A bruise is a quality issue; dirty wash water is a public-health issue,” said Henri Rätsep, a public-health researcher who reviewed the test summary at the project’s request. He cautioned that a small, targeted sample cannot measure risk across all of Accra’s produce markets.
How the scheme checked supplies
Second Basket provided 84 handwritten delivery slips covering three months. A review found that 49 deliveries were priced within 5% of the traders’ usual wholesale rate, despite the project’s description of the food as produce rejected for appearance. The slips did not record whether goods had been discarded for bruising, age or other reasons, or where washing water came from.
Project coordinator Randal Orn-Williamson said volunteers had focused on sorting and affordability, not recording each item’s history. “We judged the produce by what we could see, and we should have asked more about how it was handled,” he said. The group has paused deliveries from the two preparation sites while it arranges new water tests and a written supplier checklist.
A municipal environmental health officer, who asked not to be named because the office had not issued a public assessment, said vendors and food programmes should use clean water and keep produce off dirty surfaces. Ghana’s food-safety rules apply to donated and discounted food as well as full-price goods. The officer said local authorities had received the laboratory summary and planned to inspect the two washing points.
Second Basket estimates that its purchases cost 42,000 cedis (about €2,800) a month, and says it will restart distribution only after the sites pass follow-up tests. The project has not announced how it will verify suppliers’ claims or track future batches. For households relying on lower-cost produce, the distinction now matters: imperfect fruit can still be good food, but appearance alone cannot establish that it is safe.
A bruise is a quality issue; dirty wash water is a public-health issue.
Henri Rätsep, public-health researcher
