Journal article
Bianca van der Westhuizen, Tamryn Frank, S. Abdool Karim, E. C. Swart
Public Health Nutrition, 2023
Public Health Nutrition, 2023
Semantic Scholar
DOI
PubMed
Cite
Cite
APA
Click to copy
van der Westhuizen, B., Frank, T., Karim, S. A., & Swart, E. C. (2023). Determining food industry compliance to mandatory sodium limits: Successes and challenges from the South African experience. Public Health Nutrition.
Chicago/Turabian
Click to copy
Westhuizen, Bianca van der, Tamryn Frank, S. Abdool Karim, and E. C. Swart. “Determining Food Industry Compliance to Mandatory Sodium Limits: Successes and Challenges from the South African Experience.” Public Health Nutrition (2023).
MLA
Click to copy
van der Westhuizen, Bianca, et al. “Determining Food Industry Compliance to Mandatory Sodium Limits: Successes and Challenges from the South African Experience.” Public Health Nutrition, 2023.
BibTeX Click to copy
@article{bianca2023a,
title = {Determining food industry compliance to mandatory sodium limits: Successes and challenges from the South African experience.},
year = {2023},
journal = {Public Health Nutrition},
author = {van der Westhuizen, Bianca and Frank, Tamryn and Karim, S. Abdool and Swart, E. C.}
}
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To provide an update on the compliance to the sodium reduction regulation (R.214) and to highlight some challenges and successes experienced by South Africa in the implementation of a mandatory sodium regulation.
DESIGN The study design was observational. Nutritional information of packaged food (specified in the R.214 regulation) was collected between February 2019 and September 2020, before and after the implementation date of the final sodium targets in the regulation. Six supermarket chains that accounted for more than 50% of the grocery retailer market share in South Africa were included. The sodium content (per 100g) of products was extracted from photographs. Products were classified according to the 13 food categories included in R.214. The percentage of targeted food categories that met the pre and post regulation targets as well as the percentage by which sodium limits were exceeded were calculated.
SETTING Low-and-middle-income suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa.
PARTICIPANTS N/A.
RESULTS A total number of 3278 product were analysed. After the final implementation date, none of the categories targeted by the R.214 regulation fully complied. However, nine out of the 13 food categories targeted by R.214 were above the 70% compliance mark.
CONCLUSIONS The compliance to R.214 in South Africa is good, although not 100% compliant. This research also highlights the complexities regarding the monitoring and evaluation of a national regulation. Findings from the current study could aid by providing valuable information to countries in the process of implementing a sodium reduction strategy.
