The linking of poor nutrition to chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases is well documented.
According to Siphiwe Dlamini, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand, writing in ‘The Conversation’, these diseases are likely to become increasingly prevalent in developing countries like South Africa due to rapid and often unplanned urbanisation.
Urbanisation is the main driver of the obesity pandemic and associated chronic diseases. This is because urbanisation comes with unhealthy lifestyle changes, including increased consumption of ultra-processed and energy-dense foods which are generally unhealthy.
A large proportion of these unhealthy foods are fast foods, which are convenient to obtain at relatively low prices but are generally high in energy, fat, salt and even sugar.
Nutritional labelling of fast foods has been seen as an effective way of assisting consumers to make healthier food choices. Research shows that in the absence of nutritional labels, consumers tend to estimate nutrient content poorly. As a result, a host of countries have made in mandatory for fast-food outlets to provide nutritional information. Examples include the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Korea.
However, African countries lag behind. None have introduced mandatory nutritional labelling of fast foods. South Africa is no exception. It has no laws or regulations requiring fast-food restaurants to provide any form of nutritional information to their consumers.
Siphiwe Dlamini proposes that a traffic light labelling system should be introduced.
Advocacy Action: Can labelling be improved in your country? Is the existing labelling informative and easy to understand? Has any research been undertaken where you are into the effectiveness of labelling?