According to a recently released independent report, most of the packaged food and drink sold in Kenya by local and international companies is likely to require a health warning label under newly drafted government rules, reports Reuters.
Kenya released its nutrient profile model this month, and committed to using it to develop front-of-package labels.
The report by the non-profit Access to Nutrition Initiative found that under those rules, 90% of products sold by both international companies like Coca-Cola and Nestle as well as by local firms contained either too much salt, sugar or saturated fat.
Around two-thirds of the products would also be deemed “unhealthy” based on models used internationally like Nutri-Score, which, unlike the Kenyan model, also consider positive nutrients.
Non-profit organisation ATNI has previously tracked products globally and in countries like the United States and India, but the Kenya report, alongside one from Tanzania, is the first of its kind in an African country.
Last year the organisation found that products which are sold by the world’s biggest food and drink companies in poorer countries were generally less healthy than those sold in richer countries.
In Kenya, sales of processed packaged food grew by 16% in the five years to 2023, and adult obesity rates have tripled since 2000, with 45% of women and 19% of men now overweight or obese, the report said.
ATNI’s head of policy Katherine Pittore said Kenya was at “this tipping point where they could follow ….countries like the US, where we are seeing really high levels of obesity, or act now to try to prevent that”.
She said the nutrient model and the Kenyan Government’s commitment to using it to initiate a warning label, one of the first African governments to take such steps, were signs that they are taking action.
ATNI said it was also concerning that more than two-thirds of fortified products like sweet biscuits or yoghurts, which contain added vitamins and minerals to help people maintain balanced diets, were unhealthy based on the models.
The report was based on 746 packaged products sold by the 30 largest food and beverage companies in Kenya, around 57% of the formal packaged market.
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