Civil society groups demand what they call decisive leadership from President Ramaphosa. Nzama Mbalati is the Interim CEO of lobby group HEALA, a coalition of civil society organisations that advocate for equitable access to affordable and nutritious food for all in South Africa.
Packed lunches are top of mind for parents and care givers who are getting ready to send their little ones back to school. These often include fruit juices which parents see as a healthy alternative to sodas and other sugar sweetened beverages.
However, fruit juices benefit from the health halo effect. These days the dangers of drinking too many sugar sweetened beverages like soda are well known, however many of us do not realise that some fruit juices have more sugar than sodas. Drinking too much fruit juices has been shown to lead to an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Unlike a regular fruit, which contains fibre and is more filling, fruit juices have little to no fibre giving them a high glycaemic index.
Cereal companies are no better. South African researchers have highlighted the targeting of children by cereal manufacturers. Of the 222 breakfast cereals studied, about 97 % had a health claim. Even worse, the cereals with health claims which were marketed at children were found to be less healthy overall: such cereal had a significantly lower protein and fibre content and a significantly higher total carbohydrate and total sugar content.
Parents want to be healthy and make good food choices. Often this means making buying decisions based on a claim on the food package that it has some positive effect on your health (termed health claims). Unfortunately, these claims are not always true, or focus on one aspect of food to the exclusion of mentioning unhealthy components.
Food manufacturers often rely on health claims to create false impressions on food.
Many of the so-called “health foods” claim to be high in fibre and low in fat while hiding the fact that they contain high levels of other unhealthy ingredients, think of your classic yoghurt advert. This creates a “health halo” – a phenomenon where select claims on a product create an overestimated or false sense that the whole product is healthy.
While one cannot claim that intentions are always malicious, in a world where people are becoming increasingly health conscious it is obvious that big food would use the health halo to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions. The health halo makes it harder for people to decide between healthy and unhealthy food.
This is why South Africans urgently need a regulation that prohibits food manufacturers from making health claims on foods that are high in nutrients of concern such as salt, sugar and saturated fat.
Should the government, and over 12 000 South Africans have their way, all foods and beverages that have high levels of salt, sugar or saturated fat and fall within “high in” thresholds or contain any non-sugar sweetener will have a front-of-pack warning label (FOPWL) on them. Foods that contain a warning label will not be allowed to carry a health claim that changes the perceived healthfulness of the product.
In a country where most of the nutrition labels on food are complicated and difficult to understand for the ordinary person, it makes sense that people would rely on health claims to make their decisions.
Parents and caregivers deserve better.
Experts are sounding the alarm on the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes. South Africa in particular is on the precipice of a disaster. “The prevalence of diabetes mellitus has rapidly increased in South Africa, from 4.5% in 2010 to 12.7% in 2019. Of the 4.58 million people aged 20–79 years who were estimated to have diabetes in South Africa in 2019, 52.4% were undiagnosed” the researchers found. The primary cause of this explosion of disease was found to be closely related to nutrition. People need to be given an opportunity to make better choices for themselves without being misled by untrue claims.
A suggestion from the food and beverage industry is to be given a chance to self-regulate. However, research has proven time and time again that voluntary regulations are often weak and do not go far enough to protect the consumer.
Researchers in Brazil found that food producers deliberately used nutrition claims as a promotional strategy for their unhealthy foods. This study, looked at the packaging on over 2000 ultra-processed foods noting that of which 59.8% of the packaging presented at least one promotional strategy. Unsurprisingly, nutrition claims were the most commonly found promotional strategy, followed by health claims and the use of characters.
In order to give people a chance to make meaningful changes to their health, South Africans need clear, easy-to-read nutrition labels on the front of food packages. Companies cannot be allowed to continue to mislead well-meaning South Africans. Mandatory, comprehensive labelling laws are vital to achieve this end.
The HEALA Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Nzama Mbalati as its Interim CEO effective 1st December 2023. Mr Mbalati has been serving with the organisation since 2018 and has been a valuable member of HEALA as the Programmes Manager driving the Programmes Strategy. His professional experience encompasses over 17 years in social justice, health, food and nutrition advocacy.
Nzama is an experienced social justice activist with strengths in community and health systems strengthening, community mobilization, policy advocacy, lobbying, human rights and project management. Having worked in the social justice and public health space for over a decade, he is well-versed on issues of politics, policy, health, human rights, inequality and various other socio-economic issues facing the people of South Africa.
The term of the Interim CEO will be tied to the search of the next CEO. Over the next few months the Board will lead the search for the next CEO of HEALA with a passion for our vision and mission.
During this time of transition, we count on your continued support. Please join us in congratulating Mr Nzama Mbalati in this role and wishing him all the best and continued success.
Sincerely,
HEALA Board
On World Diabetes Day the Healthy Living Alliance, HEALA, embarked on a day of action calling on the government to increase the Health Promotion Levy to the recommended 20% to reduce the over consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSB’s) and decrease the incidence of diabetes amongst South Africans. Concerned South Africans gathered outside the offices of the National Treasury demanding for the increase and calling for an expansion of the levy to include fruit juices.
New research points to an alarming trend of a dramatic increase in the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSB’s) in Sub-Saharan region. The sub-Saharan Africa region had the highest increase in SSB consumption between 2005 and 2018 (2 serving/week increase) while in high income countries consumption decreased by about one serving/week.
Experts from Harvard School of Public Health found that those who drink between 1 and 2 cans of sugar sweetened beverages have a 26% greater chance of developing type two diabetes than those who limit their consumption.
There were huge differences in SSB intake between more vs. less educated adults in sub-Saharan Africa (more educated adults consumed over 4 weekly servings compared to less educated adults).
Taxes on sugary drinks have been shown to work in reducing the consumption of these drinks. A South African studyreleased in 2021, three years after the implementation of the Health Promotion Levy, a levy put in place to support of the Department of Health’s deliverables to decrease diabetes, obesity and other related diseases in South Africa, found that there “SSB taxes were associated with reduced sugary drink intake in a low-income population within a middle-income country”.
However, due to government’s inertia in increasing the tax to the recommended 20%, there is danger of eroding gains made from implementing the tax.
“It’s clear we have reached the cross roads as the country and key policy decision to significantly increase the sugar tax presents a unique opportunity to halt Noncommunicable disease rates that have doubled up in the past decade and raise much needed revenue on the fiscals in the dire strain,” says Nzama Mbalati, Programmes Manager for HEALA.
Dr Dr Lungi Hobe, Chairperson at Rural Doctors Association of SA, says the cost of diabetes on the individual is high.
“This is a multi-organ disease. So it can affect any organ in someone’s body. The reason for that is that it primarily affects your vessels. Your vessels, as we all know, exist in every organ of our body. You have veins in your eyes that may be affected by diabetes. Patients can end up with what we call diabetes retinopathy. Some patients end up with complete blindness just from diabetes,” Dr Hobe explains.
“You can also affect a vessel in your heart. So patients with diabetes have a higher risk of having heart attacks, or what we call cardiac devastation. You can have problems with the vessels in your kidneys. A lot of patients with diabetes will present with kidney failure or chronic kidney disease,” she adds.
Over 4 Million South Africans are currently living with the life altering illness, almost half of those are undiagnosed. The disease comes at a high personal and public cost. In 2018 experts estimated that the public sector costs of undiagnosed type 2 diabetes where R2,7bn. Considering the undiagnosed the number shoots up to a staggering R21.bn.
The country cannot afford any more delays to the increase of the levy. The costs of government’s inaction and pandering to the sugar industry are too high.
“We believe that government will make the right choice and not listen to the food and beverage industry who want to look out for their own interests,” concludes Mbalati.
By Nzama Mbalati and Zukiswa Zimela
It is really difficult to read food labels. What is trans-fat? How is it different from saturated fat? Why is sodium in milligrams instead of grams? Is it good for me?
That is, of course, if you even see the label on the back of the package.
On April 21, 2023, the National Department of Health published R3337, putting forward a draft regulation to introduce front-of-pack labelling in South Africa.
The draft regulation aims to provide easy-to-understand information on the front of packaged food to help consumers make healthy purchasing decisions.
This type of labelling has been incorporated successfully into several other countries and has been shown to help consumers better understand what they are eating.
The draft regulations also propose introducing restrictions on how foods can be marketed when those foods are deemed unhealthy.
The restrictions specifically aim to restrict techniques used to entice children to purchase and eat unhealthy food – an important measure as children are more vulnerable to persuasive marketing practices.
The draft regulation seems to be a no-brainer: more people will understand what is in food, and children will be less likely to be manipulated into making unhealthy eating decisions.
Especially in light of the worrying revelation early last week by Statistics South Africa that non-communicable diseases – diseases often associated with poor diets – have increased by 58 percent in the last two decades.
However, there has been staunch opposition from the food industry, and several red-herring arguments have been advanced.
We provide the following clarification to help the public understand the new proposed draft regulations.
Food producers will have fair use of their trademarks
The food industry argues that the restriction in the regulations aimed to remove misleading product descriptors “arbitrarily” deprive producers of their intellectual property rights.
First, the Trade Mark Act, the law regulating the protection of trademarks in South Africa, already contains a list of criteria limiting the use of trademarks, including allowing other laws to restrict trademarks or prescribing that marks which are confusing or misleading do not attract legal protection.
Second, food producers register multiple variations of their trademarks and will not face significant trade implications should a variation fall foul of the law.
As an example, we searched the Companies and Intellectual Property online database for trademarks affiliated with a popular soda brand in South Africa and found 60 different trademark results.
The regulations are deemed successful internationally The World Health Organization has called for front-of-pack labelling as a key consumer nutrition literacy intervention to promote healthy diets.
While it is very difficult to show how a policy intervention like a front-of-pack label can improve overall dietary choices, preliminary evidence exists (from Chile and more broadly), and strong evidence shows that the information-imparting objective is effective.
Additionally, the importance of the attached marketing restrictions to protect children has been proven, as studies show a strong link between unhealthy food marketing and childhood obesity.
Consumers should know that food contains ‘artificial sweeteners’
Evidence suggests that providing a warning label on excess sugar can lead consumers to unknowingly substitute sugar-sweetened beverages with alternative sweetened beverages (beverages containing artificial sweeteners).
The safety of artificial sweeteners is still debated.
The warning label is intended to be a consumer information intervention and warning consumers, especially parents, allows consumers to make a decision on appropriate artificial sweetener intake given the risk of allergic reaction, impact on diet for patients with diabetes, potential impact on long term food preferences and emerging evidence on the risk of cancer.
The label will not make it more difficult to import or export food
All countries have variations in food safety and labelling standards and require different procedures to meet local laws. There is a definite trend towards introducing front-of-pack labelling, and food producers seek regulatory harmonisation, endorsing FOPL policies to best achieve this goal.
The food industry will unfairly lose profits
Some food producers argue that they will lose profit because consumers will not buy foods with the warning labels – that is the point!
People will always eat – having people eat healthier foods should encourage food producers to make better alternatives available to the public. Corporate profits can never be more important than public health.
* Nzama Mbalati is the programmes manager at the Healthy Living Alliance (Heala).
* Zukiswa Zimela is the communications manager at Heala.
This oped was first published on IOL on the 9th of November 2023
One in 3 South Africans suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease and heart disease and hypertension are in listed in top ten causes of death in the country. A 2020 study published in the European Heart Journal – Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes journal highlighted poor diet as one of the leading contributors to heart disease deaths around the world.
The over consumption of an unhealthy diet is one of the leading causes of death for millions of people around the world. Now more than ever, South Africa needs strong evidence based regulations to protect us from life threatening noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease.
Pre-packaged foods and beverages, high in salt, sugar and saturated fat have increasingly become readily available in virtually every community around the world, with South African shops inundated with these pre-packaged foods that are processed with high levels of added sugars, salt, and saturated fats. Research has found these nutrients are connected to increased obesity and chronic nutrition-related diseases.
“More than six million deaths [globally] could be avoided by reducing intake of processed foods, sugary beverages, trans and saturated fats, and added salt and sugar, “researchers found.
Front of pack warning labels are among the tools recommended by the World Health Organisation aimed at reducing the consumption of foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat. Earlier this year the National Department of Health (NDoH) released for public comment draft regulations on the implementation of mandatory front of pack warning labels. According to the proposed regulations, all foods and beverages that have added salt, sugar or saturated fat and fall within “high in” thresholds or contain any non-sugar sweetener will have a black and white triangle warning on them to alert consumers.
The country cannot afford a delay in the implementation of the mandatory front of pack warning labels regulations. HEALA is calling on key decision makers to prioritise the health of South Africans.
“We calling on the National Department of Health to lead by its own mission “to improve health status through the prevention of illness, disease and the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and to consistently improve the health care delivery system by focusing on access, equity, efficiency, quality and sustainability”,” says Nzama Mbalati, Programmes Manager at HEALA.
The consumption of sugar sweetened beverages has also been linked to an increased risk of heart diseases. In a bold move by the South African government, the country blazed a trail as the first African country to legalise a tax on sugary drinks, in order to reduce the consumption of these products. However, in a series of decisions which favour the sugar industry, including putting a moratorium on an increase of the tax until 2025, National Treasury has threatened the efficacy of the regulation and put people’s health at risk.
“Industry often uses its economic power, lobbying and marketing machinery, and manipulation of the media to discredit scientific research and influence government inaction in order to propagate the sale and distribution of its deadly products. We cannot allow the continuation of putting profits over people,” Mbalati says.
END
About HEALA’s advocacy work in South Africa:
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. Because government policy forms a crucial part of the South Africa’s food system, HEALA believes that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are policy choices.
HEALA advances the right to food by advocating for more just food systems in South Africa. We do this by acting as a platform for organisations and communities to organise around the realisation of the right to affordable and nutritious food. Through our campaigns, we help amplify the voices of people on the ground to ensure that they are heard by those in power at a local, provincial and national level.
HEALA’s vision is a South Africa in which all people have equitable access to healthy food to unlock their full potential.
For more information about HEALA’s advocacy work, please visit: www.heala.org
Media Contact
Zukiswa Zimela, Communications Manager
zzimela@heala.org; 0745201652
The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) held its quarterly panel discussion at the Clico Boutique Hotel. HEALA advocates for communities to organize and mobilize around policy and the right to affordable, nutritious food.
The discussion presented the media with an opportunity to learn about the role the big food plays in frustrating the implementation of lifesaving health policies and thwarting HEALA’s goal of ensuring “equitable access to healthy food” for all South Africans. The panel, led by HEALA’s programme manager Nzama Mbalati, legal researcher and PHD candidate Petronell Kruger, and Policy and Research Manager Angelika Grimbeek, was facilitated by Newzroom Afrika news anchor, Michelle Craig.
With South Africa under threat from the proliferation – and preference – for Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) packaged and marketed by major food industry players, it is critical for organizations like HEALA to redirect the conversation to the dangers posed by noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other risk factors associated with unhealthy food choices.
Some of these include consuming an unhealthy diet high in sugary meals, salty foods, and fatty foods. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that countries implement interventions for Front of Package Labels (FoPL), strict marketing restrictions, and taxation as a means of fostering a culture of responsible food production and processing by large food producers, marketing institutions, and government agencies in order to steer consumers towards adopting healthy food choices and avoid NCDs.
Big Food Producers and marketing
According to Zukiswa Zimela, Communications Manager at HEALA, most of the non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and some cancers can be attributed to the overconsumption of foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat.
However, attempts to reduce the overconsumption of these foods are made difficult due to the proliferation of these foods in our supermarkets and the persuasive nature of the media and brand marketing strategies employed by the food and beverage industry through “sleek” marketing.
Angelika Grimbeek, manager of policy and research, says that a lot of people are unaware that common foods may in fact be harmful to their health.
For years, adverts and “health” claims have been utilized by large food corporations to sway consumer choices. Big bucks have been generated off of selling consumers foods and drinks loaded with sugar, salt, fat, and artificial sweeteners. Diseases like Type-2 diabetes and high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke or heart disease, are becoming increasingly common in our communities, added Grimbeek.
“Big food businesses have used adverts and health claims to influence what we eat for years. Massive profits have been made selling us products high in sugar, salt, fat and added sweetener. We are seeing more and more people in our communities suffering from diseases like Type-2 diabetes and high blood pressure that can lead to stroke or heart disease,” she said.
Healthy living is expensive: truth or myth?
For Patronell Kruger, the notion that a diet high in unhealthy foods is more expensive than one rich in nutritious foods is false.
“We must face the high cost of unhealthy diet and the consequences of noncommunicable diseases. The monetary burden of caring for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes has both immediate and far-reaching consequences. The cost of insulin is high. South Africans lose an average of R2,700 per year due to NCD, according to a study done by Wits University. That’s an eight-month COVID-19 award,” Kruger calculated.
South Africa became the first African nation to tax suger sweetened beverages on April 1, 2018. This regulation has caused beverage corporations to lower sugar-sweetened drink intake, but it will take more to shift behaviours.
The WHO studies demonstrate that a correctly planned tax that raises retail prices by 20% or more can reduce consumption proportionally and encourage healthier alternatives.
Mbalati noted that the food and beverage industry historically resisted new regulations and policies since major corporations are profit-driven. This makes advocacy a battleground between big industry, the government, and organizations like HEALA that advocate good policy.
Mbalati said the government sometimes speaks alone and the big industry sometimes misrepresents information to deceive consumers.
HEALA said that a South African HPL study indicated that the food and beverage industry misrepresents evidence and confuses the public by changing packaging.
Mbalati has urged media to present genuine and practical stories of persons recovering from terrible dietary choices.
“More human stories are needed. We must cease intellectualizing the problem with scholarly opinion pieces. I want to read about a diabetic. I want to know about her problems, food, transportation, and medication. “We need to humanize these stories,” Mbalati says.
Ends
South Africa blazed a trail as the first African country to legalise a tax on sugary drinks, making a bold stand on 1 April 2018. By implementing this pioneering move, we paved the way for a strategy that could reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages significantly.
Studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that a carefully designed tax, aimed at increasing the retail price by 20% or more, would result in proportional reductions in consumption, steering citizens towards healthier choices.
Not long after South Africa’s groundbreaking action, other countries, including Botswana and Zambia, followed suit, implementing their own versions of the sugary drinks tax. However, the road to a healthier society has not been smooth. Many African nations have been slow to act, potentially because of resistance from the beverage industry, which has been fighting back vehemently against these new regulations.
South Africa’s courageous step may have set the stage for a broader transformation, sparking a debate on how to combat obesity and promote healthier living. But the struggle against industry pushback and the adaptation of these laws across the continent continues.
This opinion piece was published in the Daily Maverick on the 29th of August 2023
Click here to read the rest of the article.
New research demonstrates that child-directed marketing strategies are used on most South African breakfast cereals.
“New research from University of the Western Cape, led by researcher Alice S. Khan, exposes how breakfast cereals, which directly market to children, have a lower nutritional value and 96% of the cereals studied had a nutritional health claim. There is an urgent need for regulations to restrict this predatory marketing and to introduce clear front-of-package warning labels on unhealthy products so consumers can make informed decisions,” says Nzama Mbalati Programmes Manager for HEALA.
The research shows that marketing and advertising is a key factor in promoting the consumption of ultra-processed products. Children are highly susceptible to these ads. Food and beverage advertising has remained unregulated even though children’s rights are guaranteed in the South African Constitution.
In this study, the researchers assessed the nutritional composition of 222 breakfast cereals, direct child marketing strategies (i.e., illustrations, characters, fantasy, role models), and indirect marketing to children’s parents (nutritional claims and health claims). Breakfast cereals with direct child marketing strategies had lower levels of protein and fibre and higher total sugar and carbohydrate content than those without direct marketing strategies.
HEALA is calling for the National Department of Health (NDoH) to ensure that there is strict regulation on the marketing of products with front of package warning labels, as this marketing has the potential to influence purchase and consumption of unhealthy products, and until now, has been highly pervasive and unregulated in South Africa. Research shows that mandatory restrictions are necessary to ensure that products do not have child-directed marketing. Promises made by the industry to self-regulate have not been effective in reducing targeted marketing to children.
South Africa is one of the few countries in the world that promotes peoples access to high-quality food in its Constitution. Section 27(1)(b) of the South African Constitution guarantees all the right to sufficient food and commits the state to the progressive realisation of this right. Additionally, Section 28(1)(c) states that every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services. Hence its crucial that the State guards against industry practices that seek to reverse the hard earn gains enshrined in our constitution.
Draft Regulation Relating to the Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs (R3337) furthers South Africa’s commitment to the right to food by regulating how unhealthy products are marketed to children and adults and through introducing front-of-package labels warning of high levels of sugar, salt and saturated fat. The comment period for Draft Regulation 3337 was recently extended until 21 September 2023, we suspect due to the lobbying efforts of the food and beverage industry to stall its implementation.
ENDS
About HEALA’s advocacy work in South Africa:
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. Because government policy forms a crucial part of the South Africa’s food system, HEALA believes that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are policy choices.
HEALA advances the right to food by advocating for more just food systems in South Africa. We do this by acting as a platform for organisations and communities to organise around the realisation of the right to affordable and nutritious food. Through our campaigns, we help amplify the voices of people on the ground to ensure that they are heard by those in power at a local, provincial and national level.
HEALA’s vision is a South Africa in which all people have equitable access to healthy food to unlock their full potential.
For more information HEALA’s advocacy work, please visit: https://heala.org
Media Contact
Zukiswa Zimela, Communications Manager
zzimela@heala.org | 0745210652
Growing up I watched the annual Christmas adverts made by a popular global sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) brand with amazement. Their trickery added to the festive magic and convinced me that Christmas would not be complete without their products being part of the family feast.
As an adult, I know better. Their not-so-sweet intentions of making a profit at the expense of people’s health leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. As a dietitian I have spent countless hours counselling some of South Africa’s overweight and obese, of whom 31% are men and 68% women – advising them on how to lose weight and avoid falling victim to the country’s top noncommunicable killer diseases such diabetes and heart problems, which are rapidly growing and posing a health threat to our society.
As a nutrition policy advocate, I have read numerous reports and research which show how the very powerful and well-resourced food and beverage industry will stop at nothing to market their products, intentionally targeting children.
Research has found that SSB manufacturers have spent close to R4-billion on advertising in six years, with most of these adverts targeting children and family viewing times. Even though these SSB manufacturers have signed various self-regulation pledges to do otherwise, nothing has changed. Children are highly susceptible to adverts for unhealthy foods. As a mother, I have experienced the power of cleverly child-crafted adverts. Nobody can blame a child for choosing the treat advertised by a celebrity or cartoon over their mother convincing them about healthy food.
For far too long the industry has been given free rein to convince us consumers that these manufactured products are what we should be eating.
As families and society we all experience the constant bombardment of advertising – from billboards on busy highways and local shops and schools covered with branding, to soundbites on radio and constant promotions at supermarkets. We don’t even get a break when we log on to social media, where we see influencers promoting unhealthy products. The cravings we get from these adverts are difficult to escape. Our food environment is also flooded with cheap products that are energy-dense and nutrient-poor, making it very difficult to eat healthily. In the past 20 years, due to the commercialisation of food production and aggressive marketing, South Africans have started consuming more and more ultraprocessed products that are putting their health at risk, affecting their lives and placing a burden on our health system.
Realistically, unhealthy food products will always be around. The food and beverage industry is a business that needs these products to make money. However, for far too long it has been given free rein to convince us consumers that these manufactured products are what we should be eating. This has to stop.
The government has a responsibility to protect the health and nutrition of its citizens, as outlined in the Constitution. This can be done by enforcing national regulations that can protect households and individuals from predatory marketing practices. Among them is the proposed Draft Regulations Relating to the Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs (R3337), which was gazetted for public consultation on 21 April 2023. The last day for public comment is 21 July 2023.
In this draft, the Department of Health puts forward the introduction of mandatory front-of-package warning labels to be placed on packaged foods and drinks that are high in added sugar, salt and saturated fat or contain any artificial sweeteners. As a further proactive measure to especially protect our children from the harmful effects of unhealthy food marketing, the department has included marketing restrictions of all products carrying these labels. This regulation is a step towards helping consumers understand what is in the food we eat so we are better equipped to achieve our consumer responsibility of making healthier food choices for ourselves and our families.
Similar mandatory regulations have been implemented in many countries. In Chile, the combination of front-of-package warning labels, marketing restrictions and banning school sales of these products has led to a drop in the purchase of unhealthy products with no effect on employment, wages or profits for the food and beverage industry.
As a parent, I welcome any help in ensuring our children are protected from the pervasive marketing of unhealthy food by big food and beverage companies. To comment on this draft regulation go to Amandla.mobi and join me in supporting this crucial regulation. DM
Angelika Grimbeek is the Policy and Research Manager at HEALA. She is a registered dietitian that has a Master of Science in Community Paediatrics, giving her the skills and passion needed to be a nutrition advocate fighting for Food Justice in South Africa.
This oped was published in the Daily Maverick on the 19th of July 2023
