South Africa
Country targets
- Sodium: Mandatory salt targets set in 2013 with goals for 2016 and 2019
- Sugar: No targets
- Saturated fat: No targets
Sodium:
Packaged Food Sampling
- Number of packaged food products: 11,065
- Data collected: June 2015-August 2016
- Nutrient type: Sodium
Methods
Data on packaged food was obtained from an in-store survey of major retail stores (conducted in collaboration with South Africa’s largest health insurance company, Discovery) and crowdsourcing of food labels through the FoodSwitch mobile phone application. Photos of packaged food and beverage items were taken during by crowdsourced data collectors as well as by the in-store surveys in major retail stores in Johannesburg, such as Woolworths, Pick n Pay, Sparand Shoprite Checkers using the FoodSwitch app. Crowdsourced data were pooled nationally.
11,065 products were then sorted into 13 food categories for which mean, median, interquartile range minimum and maximum values of sodium content (mg/100 g of product) were reported.
Data source: The Sodium Content of Processed Foods in South Africa during the Introduction of Mandatory Sodium Limits
Citation: Peters SAE, Dunford E, Ware LJ, et al. The Sodium Content of Processed Foods in South Africa during the Introduction of Mandatory Sodium Limits.\_Nutrients. 2017;9(4):404. Published 2017 Apr 20. doi:10.3390/nu9040404
Contact
Fraser Taylor
FoodSwitch Managing Director, The George Institute for Global Health
Institution leading data collection
The George Institute for Global Health, PO Box M20, Missenden Road, NSW 2050, Australia
