Intensify Your Advocacy Drive To Promote Food Safety Environment In Ghana—Prof. Zotor Urges Ghana NCD Alliance

IN A bid to pitch food labelling policy as a viable means for addressing the growing prevalence of childhood obesity and other diet-related NCDs, the Ghana NCD Alliance organized a webinar as part of its healthy diets for healthy lives project.

Childhood obesity has become a major health threat of the 21st century with millions of children being either obese or overweight. The increase in obesity rates can be attributed to the rapid changes in diet patterns over the past few decades.

Speaking at the webinar, Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana, Prof. Francis Zotor, called on local health promotional sector players including the Ghana Non-communicable Disease (NCD) Alliance to continue to embark on massive advocacy drive in villages and towns in Ghana to help promote food safety environment in the country.

He advised that the advocacy must be beneficial to everybody and not be too technical.

Despite the good intentions of policymakers, food labels are often limited in their effectiveness due to too much information that is sometimes confusing.

Hence, the need to adopt the use of color codes to simplify nutritional information for easy comprehension and use. With the right knowledge on color codes, consumers will be empowered to decipher health harming food items in order to make healthy choices.

In his presentation, he underscored the impact of cultural influences on advocacy initiatives so as not to put across messages that people would miscomprehend because they do not sit well with their cultural beliefs.

He also explained that a red color code which represents something good on a food label may be misconstrued as negative to consumers because in their culture red signifies danger which can result in unhealthy choices due to lack of education. 

He commended the Ghana NCD Alliance for coming up with such game changing initiative which is in the right direction to fight against childhood obesity in Ghana.

He further stressed the need for Ghanaians to join forces with the Ghana NCD Alliance and other health civil society organisations including dieticians to embark on massive public education in all communities in the Western, Northern and Central region of Ghana to educate the people on food safety.

We must stand together and support the Ghana NCD Alliance to achieve its intended purpose and target," he further advised.

Prof. Zotor urged parents to ensure safe and nutritious food for all their children because they are the future and deserve to live, learn and play in healthy spaces where food is nutritious and healthy. He made this call during the webinar under the theme ‘’ combatting childhood obesity through effective front-of-pack labelling policies.

Mr. Maxwell Bisala Konlan, a senior dietician at the University of Ghana Hospital, in his presentation on breaking the codes and understanding food label terminologies, explained that nutrition facts indicated ‘’red’’ mean there is high amount of either a bad or good constituent of the food item and ‘’amber’’ represents medium  whereas ‘’green’’ represents low amount of either sugar, saturated fat or sodium.

By understanding these key terminologies, consumers can detect ingredients that could cause harmful reactions.

He emphasized the importance of parents to understand the nutrition facts as well as the ingredient list on food labels to be able to align food intake to desired health outcomes and to also make quick and informed food decisions for healthy diets.

According to him, food labels break down the number of calories, carbohydrates, saturated fat, fiber, protein, and vitamins per serving, making it easier to compare the nutrient information of similar products for an informed healthy decision.

It is imperative to check carefully expiration and manufacturing dates of food items before purchase to feed children to avoid the risk of contracting obesity or other diet-related NCDs as a result, he added.

There has been a shift from nutritious organic foods towards unhealthy foods, packaged snacks, and calorie-dense meals, which have become major contributors to this problem. As childhood obesity is multi-factorial in origin with unhealthy foods being a major contributor, solutions need to be explored from all avenues.   

Among the many interventions to prevent diet-related NCDs, it is apparent that effective food labelling policies can reduce the burden as food labels provide nutritional information that helps consumers make healthier food choices.

Consumer information plays a crucial role in food purchasing and simple food labels have been found to be more effective in guiding consumer choices. 

Likewise, attractive packaging elements and misleading health-related visual and textual cues may encourage children and young people to choose energy-dense foods with excessive content of sugar, fat, and sodium. 

Thus, effective food labelling policies should be targeted at enabling young people to make informed decisions for healthier food choices. Policies should also include restrictions on the use of false indications on food products, as they ultimately influence the diet and food available in the household.

Like other countries, Ghana has its fair share of childhood obesity cases and even though food labels help reduce the burden, policies on food labelling in Ghana are scanty and unstandardized. 
Existing food labelling practices in Ghana are challenged with readability, scanty information, incomprehensible terminologies, and unfamiliar language problems, attributing to the cause of unhealthy food choices by consumers hence, a more strategic approach needs to be adopted to ensure food labels are simplified and easily digestible