Fatshimetrie
In the past month, President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a state of disaster after six children in Soweto died after eating potato chips. The tragedy has highlighted the need for a single agency to monitor food safety in the country.
The deaths of Zinhle Maama, Isago Mabote, Njabulo Msimango, Katlego Olifant, Karabo Rampou and Monica Sebetwana have deeply shocked the nation. All under the age of 9, the children died after eating a packet of potato chips contaminated with a dangerous pesticide, found in three grocery stores near their home in Naledi, Soweto.
The deaths, along with the deaths of 16 other children and nearly 900 people who have fallen ill from foodborne illnesses across the country in just two months, have sparked outrage and the declaration of a national disaster.
President Cyril Ramaphosa brought together the ministries of health; trade and industry; agriculture; basic education and small business development, as well as the police and military health services, the National Consumer Affairs Commission and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. A ministerial task force developed plans to clean up rodent infestations, community education programmes and a major push to register small businesses and grocery stores.
However, the government’s response has highlighted the complex and fragmented nature of the country’s food system, managed by multiple agencies. Could this be partly addressed by creating a single food safety agency?
Not fit for purpose
Since the start of 2023, more than 3,000 people have fallen victim to suspected foodborne illnesses, caused by eating food contaminated with germs or chemicals, including toxic substances. In South Africa, infections caused by bacteria such as Salmonella – commonly found in meat, poultry, eggs or milk – and Clostridium perfringens, often linked to underheated sauces, undercooked poultry or other meats, are among the most common causes of foodborne illness.
Listeriosis, a disease caused by the microbe Listeria monocytogenes, which contaminated ready-to-eat meat products, sickened 1 060 people and caused 216 deaths in the country between January 2017 and July 2018.
A review of the government’s response to the outbreak found that South Africa’s food safety system was not fit for purpose due to fragmented management of the problem, with little interaction between different government agencies and confusion over who is responsible for ensuring that safe food is being sold, particularly by informal traders..
At the time, Ramaphosa announced plans to create a single agency for food safety.
However, more than six years later, this body has still not been established.
“The work to create a single agency for food safety requires legislative changes and it will take time to get to the final destination,” according to Foster Mohale, spokesperson for the health department.
Work began in 2018 when teams from the ministries of health, agriculture and trade and industry submitted a report to parliament. But the mandate of government lawmakers ended before a decision was made, and the department is waiting to see whether the new committee will use the existing report or start the process again, Mohale said.
Food Safety Monitoring
Currently, the responsibility for checking the safety of the food we eat before it reaches the shelves lies with the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, and Trade and Industry, with support from the Ministry of Fisheries, Forestry and Environment, the Border Management Authority, and the National Consumer Affairs Commission.
The Ministry of Health ensures that places that produce, serve, and sell food comply with hygiene and safety regulations and manage foodborne outbreaks. The Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of registering pesticides and importing and exporting animal products, while the Ministry of Trade and Industry oversees food products entering and leaving the country, ensuring they meet local and international standards.
One author of a study published in July in BMC Public Health that looked at food fraud in South Africa – when food suppliers deliberately sell products they know are unsafe to eat – said the lack of coordinated oversight allows unsafe food to enter the system. A single regulatory authority, like the Food and Drug Administration in the US or the Food Standards Agency in the UK, would help ensure coordination across the supply chain, according to Phoka Rathebe, associate professor of environmental health at the University of Johannesburg.
Falling short
Much of the enforcement of rules to ensure people can trust the safety of their food falls to environmental health inspectors (EHPs). However, last year there were only 1,712 of these health inspectors across the country, which for a population of about 63 million, works out to one for every 37,000 people. This is well below the health ministry’s target of one inspector for every 10,000 people, which they consider to be the norm..
EHPs are responsible for ensuring that public water supplies are safe and that waste is not disposed of in inappropriate locations, among other duties.