South Africa’s population is one of the least healthy globally, characterised by high levels of obesity, lifestyle-induced non-communicable disease (NCD) and persistent hunger and malnutrition. Covid-19 has exacerbated these public health and food security challenges, as well as amplified public aspirations for health and wellness, yet current economic realities mean that people have less money to invest in healthier lifestyle choices.

As Africa’s biggest food company, we are aware of the significant role that our products play in the everyday lives of people, and the potential to leverage our brands to inspire positive behaviour change among consumers. Our health and nutrition agenda is integral to our purpose to nourish and nurture more lives every day, and key to meeting the needs of consumers in a shifting landscape.

Consumer-based product innovation is a core priority for growing our business see IR, and we see valuable opportunities in leading the health and nutrition agenda in South Africa and across the continent. We are looking to realise these commercial opportunities through our health and nutrition strategy, and are building a strong innovation pipeline that looks to combine health and nutrition with trends for convenience, affordability and value.

Our health and nutrition strategy addresses the poor state of health and nutrition in South Africa, responds to pending regulatory developments in labelling, marketing and nutrition, and positions the company to compete and grow in the health and nutrition segment. We have recently revised the strategy, emphasising a focus on commercialisation to enhance our delivery of new product innovations see IR.

PRODUCT RENOVATION

We are building the integrity of our portfolio by renovating our existing product range to comply with robust nutritional standards, meet the requirements of modern food labelling practices, and to move our existing products, labels and ingredients towards alignment with best-practice initiatives in health and nutrition.

Nutrition labelling

We are committed to playing a leading role on nutrition labelling to make it easier for consumers to make informed choices about our food products and their health.

Basic nutrition labelling and the declaration of certain ingredients and allergens is regulated by South Africa’s national Department of Health, through the regulations relating to the advertising and labelling of foodstuffs. We remain in full compliance with these requirements. Beyond compliance, we declare the presence of beta glucan (insoluble fibre) in some of our Jungle Oats products in regard to heart health benefits, and label the glycaemic-index and glycaemic-load of Albany Low-GI breads in relation to sustaining energy levels.

We are following developments relating to the forthcoming front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling regulations in South Africa, and have developed a position on FOP labelling, which will guide our engagement on these regulations with government and other stakeholders. We are committed to providing a FOP labelling solution that best enables consumers to make an informed decision regarding their food choices. We maintain full adherence to the on-pack nutrition labelling requirements of our Eat Well Live Well (EWLW) and Be-Nutrient-Wise initiatives. Under the EWLW programme, we continue to restructure label architectures and artwork across various brands to accommodate more nutrition information see responsible marketing.

Nutrition standards

We monitor advances in nutrition and broader public health issues, including through the World Health Organisation (WHO) and South African Department of Health, and regularly review our nutritional standards, so that our products meet or exceed globally recognised guidelines. We remain in full compliance with the latest sodium regulations and sugar tax in South Africa.

We have recently updated the EWLW nutritional standards to align with locally and globally recognised dietary guidelines. These standards have been formalised through the Nutrition Information Centre of the University of Stellenbosch (NICUS), and plan to have these standards reviewed through NICUS every three years. We have introduced an EWLW nutritional assessment tool that we use to categorise the nutritional value of our products across three tiers: indulgent, improved-for-you and good-for-you. We have categorised all new and existing products, and approximately 50% of our food and beverage portfolio meet the standards for the healthier categories: improved-for-you and good-for-you. All products in our portfolio have Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) and/or the Be Nutrient Wise/Eat Well Live Well stamp-of-approval on-pack.

Fortification

Malnutrition affects a significant proportion of the populations we serve. In this context, manufacturing quality staple foods, such as bread and maizemeal for lower-income households, comes with additional responsibility for supporting nutrition outcomes. We fortify new and existing products.

We fortify staple foods such as brown and white bread, wheat flour, cake flour and maize meal, in alignment with South African regulations. We fortify these staple foods with key vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B9 (folic acid), iron and zinc. Amendments to the national regulations stipulating the amounts of these vitamins and minerals, including the appropriate type of Iron to be used, are currently pending approval, and we are contributing to this process. We will ensure that our affected products comply with these new regulations once published.

We voluntarily enrich additional products across Cereals, Bakeries, and Baby food, including Morvite, certain Jungle cereals, and Ace Instant, with micronutrients commonly deficient in South African diets. Currently, we have delivered micronutrient enrichment across >30% of our portfolio (as measured by net sales), predominantly in our Grains products. We also develop fortified products that target a specific nutritional health improvement, and in 2022 launched Energade BOOST to support healthy eyes and immune function. In addition to the inclusion of micronutrients, we are excluding and substituting certain preservatives, colourants and sweeteners with more natural alternatives. In 2022, we launched reformulated Purity Jars in which modified ingredients have been replaced with more natural ones.