South Africa suffers from high levels of hunger, food insecurity, and obesity — all of which are consequences of the country’s broken food system. It is only by fixing South Africa’s broken food system will the country be able to guarantee everyone equitable access to affordable, nutritious food. This webinar explores the role Big Food plays in our ability to access nutritious food and how evidence based policies can address these issues.
Join us as we delve into Ultra-Processed Food consumption and its health implications, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Our panel of experts shared insights on the alarming association between UPP consumption and increased risks of obesity, overweight, and stunting.
New research shows that Food Giant Nestle is intentionally exposing young children from developing countries like South Africa to foods containing high levels of sugar. The researchers found that biscuit flavoured baby cereal South Africa contains 6 grams of sugar while the same product sold in Switzerland, where Nestlé is headquartered, is available with no added sugar.
Alarmingly the report noted that “Cerelac wheat-based cereals for six-month-old babies sold by Nestlé in Germany and the UK has no added sugar, while the same product contains over 5 grams per serving in Ethiopia and 6 grams in Thailand.” The same cereal sold in South Africa contained 4 grams of sugar per serving.
It is a well known fact that the overconsumption of sugar is linked to obesity. South Africa is facing a growing crisis of childhood obesity. 1 in 8 children under the age of 5 are obese. This alarming statistic points to a grim future for these children, who are likely to grow into a cohort of adults where every second person is obese. Being overweight or obese is a well-known driver of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
With low levels of nutrition literacy, it is difficult for ordinary people to make sense of the current nutrition labels on the back of food products. Additionally, parents and caregivers who want to make the best choices for their children are often lured in by false claims of healthfulness and enrichment made by food producers.
The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) reiterates its call for the ratification of front-of-pack warning label (FOPWL) regulations on foods containing high levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat to protect caregivers from predatory food organisations like Nestlé. In 2023, the the National Department of Health (NdoH) published R3337, putting forward a draft regulation to introduce front-of-pack labelling in South Africa. These labels are intended to make it easier for everyone to identify these foods and make better food choices for themselves and their families.
Additionally, the regulation makes provision for marketing restrictions to be placed on foods bearing a warning label. This will protect consumers from unfounded health claims made by food producers.
“HEALA continues to call for South African government to strengthen their regulation and policy framework to safe guards the health of the children which is under the risk to major unhealthy food producers such as Nestle. We calling for government to review and tightening the Marketing Restriction to Children Regulation, urgently promulgate regulation on unhealthy food through FOWPL, policies that make schools a healthy food zones, protect academia from conflict of interests by food industry,” says Nzama Mbalati, HEALA, acting interim CEO.
Additional sugar was not only found in baby cereals, added sugar was also detected in Nido powdered milk marketed to children from the age on one.
Nestlé’s has a history of intentionally violating regulations put in place to protect the young. South Africa has regulations in place that prevent companies from aggressively promoting consumption of ultra-processed food, including products with a high sugar content. However, in 2021 Nestlé was caught flouting R991 regulations meant to safeguard the nutrition and health of South African children by organising a webinar with a potential giveaway to parents who attended. The department’s regulations are meant to safeguard the nutrition and health of South African children.
“Unethical behaviour in sales and marketing is something Nestlé is familiar with. Being the world’s largest food and beverage corporation, Nestlé has made a reputable name and made excessive profits for themselves at the expense of children and adults health globally,” Mbalati says.
While positioning itself as the solution to serious, life threatening issues like hidden hunger , Nestle pushes products with added sugars to food insecure children in developing countries.
HEALA is urging the government to do everything in its power to protect South Africa’s most vulnerable. The consequences of allowing big food companies to run rampant in our country are terrifying and should be a concern for us all.
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About HEALA:
HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations that advocates for equitable access to affordable and nutritious food for all in South Africa.
For interview requests please contact:
Zukiswa Zimela, Communications Manager HEALA
HEALA cordially invites you to our upcoming webinar scheduled for April 24 at 15.30 SAST. The webinar titled “My Health, My Right: The Importance of regulating the food environment to eliminate over and under nutrition” is aimed at highlighting the grim reality of the food environment in South Africa. Currently, the country is battling a double burden of over and under-nutrition.
Experts warn that Ultra-Processed Food consumption may be associated with a higher risk of obesity, overweight, and stunting in low and middle-income countries. New research by Dr. Tamryn Frank shows that low-income South African adults consume, on average, 40% of their calories from ultra-processed products. We live in a society where eight million children go hungry every day. Dr. Edzani Mphaphuli will discuss the dangers of stunting and malnutrition for the wellbeing of children throughout their lives.
HEALA’s Programmes Manager, Petronell Kruger, will speak about the need for evidence-based regulations to fix South Africa’s broken food system and guarantee everyone equitable access to affordable, nutritious food.
The theme for this year is My Health, My Right. The theme according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) “was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, [and] good nutrition”.
South Africa is facing an alarming scourge of under-and over nutrition. Over 1 in 4 children in the country are stunted, while 1 in 8 children under the age of 5 are obese and overweight. On the other hand, almost 70 percent of adult women in the country have overweight and obesity.
“While eight million children go hungry every day and a quarter of all children are stunted, we also see that one in eight children is overweight. According to statistics, these children will grow into a cohort of adults where every second person is obese,” explains Petronell Kruger, Programmes Manager at the Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA)
Being overweight or obese is a well-known driver of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
What can be done?
Nutrition is one of the most important contributors to good health, HEALA believes that urgent interventions by government need to be put in place to urgently address these issues. Research shows that subsidising healthy food, which can be more expensive than unhealthy, energy dense alternatives, has been shown to decrease the consumption of unhealthy food and lead to healthier life outcomes for all.
Where will the money come from?
Experts suggest that taxes from SSB such as South Africa’s Health Promotion Levy (HPL) can be used to fund various health promotion intervention such as children’s diet and nutrition programmes and subsidising of healthy food.
From its inception on 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021, the HPL has generated R7.9 billion in cumulative revenue from domestically produced and imported products. Specifically, collections in 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 were R3.2 billion, R2.5 billion and R2.1 billion respectively. An increase in the HPL to the recommended 20% could almost double the revenue collected by Treasury.
Why do we need to do this?
We need to end food poverty and we need policies to help South Africans eat less unhealthy food. Government must take steps to end hunger and poor nutrition.
Last month we commemorated 25 years of the SA constitution – a document that was supposed to usher in a generation of South Africans living in dignity, equality and freedom.
However, we see a dangerous dualism in SA: while eight million children go hungry every day and a quarter of all children are stunted, we also see that one in eight children is overweight.
According to statistics, these children will grow into a cohort of adults where every second person is obese. Being overweight or obese is a well-known driver of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
More than half of South Africans are dying of these diseases each year, which Stats SA has termed a “looming health crisis”. At first glance, the idea of a society where half of the population is overweight, while severe hunger persists seems dystopian, akin to the Hunger Games, where the rich gorge themselves and the poor fight to survive.
But the reality is that in individual households, both co-exist. Low income households are more likely to purchase energy dense, nutritionally poor food, which contributes to weight gain.
Strong evidence has emerged that food companies that sell low nutrition products target poorer families through marketing and retail outlet placement – the “double burden of malnutrition”.
Human rights are the idea that human beings are entitled to certain protections. After World War 2, the first modern international instrument setting out these rights was created – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
This article was published on SowetanLive on the 4th of April 2024. Click HERE to read the full oped.
Following 30 years of democracy, South Africans are facing a devastating crisis of under and over nutrition with staggering levels of non-communicable diseases. The health of the nation is tied to the ability of ordinary South Africans to realise their right to a healthy life. The Constitution recognizes the right to health and food, and incorporates principles from international treaties which places a duty on states to prevent non-communicable diseases.
A recent study found that South Africans are consuming an excessive amount of ultra-processed food, which is tied to poor health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. The study shows troubling trends for low-income South Africans: unhealthy ultra-processed foods are a big part of their diets (40%) and younger populations are increasingly shifting towards more unhealthy food that are high in sugar, salt, and saturated fat.
The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) believes that South Africans have a right to know what’s in their food, and mandatory ront of package warning labels (FOPWL) are one way to provide information on which products are high in nutrients of concern. Implementing FOPWL as soon as possible can help to reduce the portion of South Africans’ diets, which is ultra-processed.
“We need policies to help South Africans eat less unhealthy food. Interventions like the proposed front-of-pack warning label, which will give consumers information if the food they are eating contains too many ‘bad’ ingredients, are cost-effective and empowering ways to change eating habits. Taxes on products like sodas are a double win – more public funds and less sugar in our already diabetic-prone society,” says HEALA Programmes Manager Petronell Kruger.
HEALA has been calling for access to good nutrition. Policies are needed to guarantee fair access, availability, and affordability of healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, particularly for low-income populations to make sure more South Africans are not suffering from hunger. Revenue raised from the Health Promotion Levy (which target sodas) could be allocated to provide subsidies on healthy foods.
Because government policy forms a crucial part of South Africa’s food system, HEALA believes that hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition are policy choices and government needs to play its part in protecting ordinary South Africans.
About HEALA:
HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations that advocates for equitable access to affordable and nutritious food for all in South Africa.
For interview requests please call
Zukiswa Zimela, Communications Manager HEALA
Zukiswa[at]heala.org | +2710 825 4403
Deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are surging worldwide. In South Africa, deaths from NCDs increased by almost 60 percent from 1997 to 2018. Urgent action is needed. We know that we can’t solve the problem of NCDs with isolated, small and convenient interventions in individual lifestyles. The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) is calling for a package of bold interventions with a systemic overview of the issue of obesity.
Research shows that an estimated 1 in 8 South African children are overweight which is double the global average. Experts warn that children experiencing overweight and obesity in early childhood run the risk of experiencing obesity as adults. Obesity is associated with other dangerous diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
One of the most urgent interventions needed to curtail the explosion of NCDs in South Africa is the regulation of the food environment. The government needs to strongly regulate the food environment in favour of consumers to curb the consumption of unhealthy food, which is often heavily marketed to South Africa’s poor.
HEALA is asking the government to urgently increase the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) on select sugar-sweetened beverages to 20 percent and include fruit juices in the HPL. Currently, the levy remains at a paltry 11% and has not seen a significant increase since it was introduced in 2018.
Secondly, the National Department of Health needs to speed up the adoption of effective front-of-package warning labels on unhealthy foods to help consumers make better choices and live healthier lives. Several studies have shown that people globally and in South Africa have trouble reading traditional nutritional labels.
“The food industry spends billions of rands every year to reach children with their product marketing. They also aggressively lobby against public health policies aimed at promoting good health. We know the food industry would not spend billions of Rands fighting public health interventions that are not effective,” says Acting Interim CEO Nzama Mbalati.
What we eat is one of the biggest contributors to obesity. According to this study, our modern diets of calorie-dense foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, and high-fat and high-carb foods have been linked to obesity.
“It is unfortunate that government perpetuates the notion that public health interventions should first and foremost have economic benefits. We believe that the people’s well-being and dignity should be enough of a reason to push forward with solid regulations,” Mbalati says.
Sporadic interventions on this issue will do nothing to bring us back from the brink of the NCD cliff, what we need are sustained, evidence-based actions that look at the entire food system and address all the systematic causes of obesity in the country.
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About HEALA:
HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations advocating for equitable access to affordable, nutritious food in South Africa by building a more just food system.
For media interviews please contact
Zukiswa Zimela Communications Manager HEALA
0745210652 | zukiswa@heala.org
For years National Treasury has failed to increase the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), which not only contributes to the fiscus but also reduces the consumption of sugary drinks. This levy is a vital tool in South Africa’s fight against life threatening non communicable diseases.
Ordinary South Africans bear the burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Researchers have alerted us of the dangers of a high NCD burden. One study warns that “the implications for the current situation are widespread: a future population with deteriorated physical and mental health, presenting with co-morbidities that render these individuals more susceptible to infectious diseases”.
Treasury’s continued failure to act to protect ordinary South African’s against industry interest shows it’s lack of commitment to stopping and reversing the tsunami of non-communicable diseases in South Africa. The Finance minister has once again failed South Africans by refusing to increase the HPL to 20% or at least announce the implementation of annual inflation-related increases of this lifesaving intervention that has been shown to work.
HEALA believes that the government is doing a disservice to any efforts to curtail the avalanche of NCD’s in the country by allowing the sugar industry to use the HPL as a scapegoat for its ongoing failure. We will continue to hold treasury accountable in implementing pro-people policies that put people’s health at the forefront.
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HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations advocating for equitable access to affordable, nutritious food in South Africa by building a more just food system.
For media interviews please contact
Zukiswa Zimela Communications Manager HEALA
0745210652 | zukiswa@heala.org
In anticipation of the upcoming budget speech HEALA is reiterating its call on Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to increase the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) to the recommended rate of 20% to ensure that all South Africans, particularly the most vulnerable, realise their right to nutritious food.
Research shows that South Africa’s children are starving. Experts warn that nearly five million South African children live below the poverty line. A lack of adequate nutrition in the early years of a child’s life is one of the leading causes of stunting. Children with stunting are more likely to grow up to be obese and overweight. We know that obesity is linked with an increased risk of life-threatening non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Growing evidence shows that health taxes are the most cost-effective tools for controlling the consumption of unhealthy foods. That is why we are calling on the National Treasury to increase the HPL to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended 20% rate with annual inflation-related increases thereafter and immediately begin the public consultation process of expansion to fruit juices and lowering the 4g threshold.
As it stands, the Child Support Grant has not kept up with rising food prices, and so many children and families go hungry.
HEALA strongly believes that the HPL is one of many effective ways to ensure that South Africa’s children are taken care of. Furthermore, we believe that it is the responsibility of the Finance Minister to raise enough funds to increase the Child Support Grant to at least the Food Poverty Line, which is currently R760 per person per month.
“Earlier this month we heard during the State of the Nation that more than half of South Africans live in poverty. We see how this plays out in the Eastern Cape with 1 in 4 children being stunted. We know that 1 in 5 households have experienced food insecurity. Social support grants can ensure that South Africans access the most basic of needs: food and water. We cannot live in a country where one-half struggle to live, while we also host the most billionaires on the Continent,” says Petronell Kruger, Programme Manager at HEALA.
For years National Treasury has failed to increase the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), which not only contributes to the fiscus but also reduces the consumption of sugary drinks, which reduces the risk of life-threatening non-communicable diseases.
These additional funds from the HPL will boost the fiscus, allowing the government to increase the child support grant. By raising the sugary drinks tax, treasury can fund this vital lifesaving intervention.
From its inception on 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021, the HPL has generated R7.9 billion in cumulative revenue from domestically produced and imported products. Specifically, collections in 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 were R3.2 billion, R2.5 billion and R2.1 billion respectively. An increase in the HPL to the recommended 20% could almost double the revenue collected by Treasury. In 2023 the Finance minister announced a moratorium on any increases on the HPL until 2025. We cannot keep delaying the increase to the levy and prioritising the sugar industry’s profits over our health.
“The government is doing a disservice to the sugar industry by using the HPL as a scapegoat. It is important that we tackle the real issues: corruption by big players like Tongaat Hulett, climate change and genuine investment in diversifying the industry,” Kruger says.
“Do not punish the public. We know that poor health costs the country money. We know that poor diets are killing people. The HPL is a win-win. To suspend the HPL to try and save the sugar industry when the real issues lie elsewhere is irrational and dangerous,” Kruger adds.
HEALA believes that a healthy population is a nation’s greatest asset, by prioritising the health and overall well-being of our nation’s children, we are making an investment into our future.
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HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations advocating for equitable access to affordable, nutritious food in South Africa by building a more just food system.
