The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) is calling on South African consumers to rethink their food choices. The civil society organisation that advocates for a more just food system has been campaigning across the country to create awareness on the harmful ingredients found in ultra-processed foods.
This after the Department of Health gazetted the draft regulations relating to the Labelling and Advertising of Foodstuffs in January this year.
Consumers had until Friday to submit their comments in favour of new and bolder front-of-package warning labels that will inform them of packaged food that is high in salt, sugar, saturated fat and which contains artificial sweeteners.
Policy and Research Manager at HEALA, Angelika Grimbeek explains, “A lot of South Africans have no idea that the food that they are consuming is actually making them ill and we don’t know what’s in the food that we are eating. So, that is why it is so important for the Department of Health and for the government to put regulations in place such as the ones proposed in the draft regulations that will clearly show a consumer what is in the food and what is unhealthy in the food especially ingredients like sugar, salt and saturated fat.”
Grimbeek elaborates in the podcast below:
