The warning labels that could be coming for your crisps

TimesLIVE

2 days ago

It can be difficult to understand what the nutritional information on packaged food is trying to tell us, and complicated measurements and unfamiliar terms don't make it any easier.
But if the food labelling regulations currently being reviewed by the health department are enacted, big, bold warning signs on the front of food packaging will let shoppers immediately identify foods high in sugar, salt or unhealthy fats, or if they contain any amount of artificial sweeteners.
Nutritional experts hope the warnings will help people make healthier food choices at the grocery store and begin to make connections between unhealthy food, obesity and chronic disease.
'It's sort of hidden.'
That's how 30-year-old Elvina Moodley describes the nutritional labels on the back of packaged food products stacked on grocery store shelves. 'When you're there, you're already in a rush and don't have the time to look at the small print on the back to see how much sugar or salt is in an item.'
Moodley, like many South Africans, says she's never really understood how nutritional tables — the per serving amounts of calories, glycemic carbohydrates (carbohydrates the body digests and uses for energy), protein, fat and sodium (salt) — translate into what is a healthy, or unhealthy, food.
But big, bold triangle warning labels on the front of packages could mean making healthy choices will be a lot easier.
South Africa's draft food labelling regulation, which is under review at the health department, would require packaged foods high in sugar, salt, saturated fat (often from animal fat or plant oils), or any amount of artificial sweetener to carry warnings for consumers.
It would work, says Edzani Mphaphuli, executive director of the childhood nutrition nonprofit Grow Great, in a similar way to warnings on cigarette packs.
'You might not know why smoking causes cancer, but when you see the label, you start to think, 'OK, this might not be good for me,'' she says. 'But [many people] don't know that sugar causes cancer or that obesity is related to cancer. We just think about it as, 'I'm big,' and it ends there. There isn't a clear link that is made around that and hypertension (high blood pressure) and diabetes, and all of the other chronic diseases.'
Why labels are hard to read
Many familiar foods — from noodles and breakfast cereals to baby food — are considered ultraprocessed. It's because of how they are made, using ingredients you wouldn't normally find in a kitchen, such as artificial colours or preservatives. Often these foods are filled with sugar, fat, starch and salt. Those ingredients give people energy in the form of calories but fewer healthy nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Eating too many of these types of foods can raise the chances of obesity, which can lead to diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Currently, food labels in South Africa are required to list all product ingredients, including those that people could be allergic to, where the product comes from and its best before or use by date. But unless manufacturers make claims like 'low in sugar', they don't have to include detailed per serving nutrient information.
Even when it does appear, it's often in small writing and uses terms and measurements that an ordinary shopper would not understand, says Makoma Bopape, a nutrition researcher and lecturer at the University of Limpopo. 'It tells you how much of certain nutrients you get in, say, 100ml or in a serving size. But if you don't have a nutritional science [background] it's hard to know what that means.'
That's why some countries have started to use simple front-of-pack labels. Since 2013, the UK has used a 'traffic light' system with red, yellow and green markers to show whether a product is high, medium or low in sugar, salt and fat. While it is mandatory for manufacturers to include nutritional information on the back of their products, they can opt to use the 'traffic light' on the front of food packages — and most do.