By Michael Gwarisa
Zimbabwe is considering introducing colour-coded food labels that would make it easier for parents and caregivers to identify foods high in sugar, salt and fat, as the Government moves to strengthen regulation of unhealthy food products and their marketing to children.
The proposed system would use familiar traffic-light colours to provide an immediate warning about the nutritional content of packaged foods, with green indicating healthier choices, amber signalling caution and red warning consumers that a product contains high levels of nutrients such as sugar, salt or fat.
Chj Chikanda, a nutritionist with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, said the proposed approach is part of broader efforts to strengthen food labelling and protect children from unhealthy diets.
“We have policies that we have in place. The recently gazetted Public Health (Breast-milk Substitutes, Infant and Young Child Nutrition) Regulations, S.I. 192 of 2024, stipulate the types of foods that can be marketed and sold for children’s feeding purposes,” Chikanda said.
She said the regulations cover children from infancy through the early years, while the Government is also reviewing broader food legislation to strengthen how nutritional information is presented to consumers.
“This is also part of the larger Public Health Act that looks at issues of food labelling, to say what is contained in this food. Foods that are high in fat, high in sugar and high in salt should not be aggressively marketed to children,” she said.
Zimbabwe already has food-labelling regulations requiring packaged foods to provide information including ingredients and other particulars, while subsequent amendments have strengthened requirements around nutrition claims and the declaration of certain ingredients.
However, a 2024 UNICEF-supported assessment of packaged foods in Zimbabwe found widespread gaps in nutrition information and recommended mandatory front-of-package labelling and restrictions on the marketing of unhealthy products. The assessment found that packaged foods were predominantly ultra-processed and often high in nutrients of concern, including saturated fat, sugar and sodium.
Chikanda said the Government wants to make nutritional information easier for ordinary consumers to understand.
“People at times do not understand the language that is written on the food labels. But if we say, for example, green to say this is good food, you can go for it; if it has amber or yellow, it says this is processed, consume with caution; and if it has red, it means it has high sugar content, for example,” she said.
She said the proposed approach is being considered as part of the review of Zimbabwe’s food standards legislation, which could eventually become a broader Food Safety Act.
“We have it in our plans as we review the Food and Food Standards Act to become the Food Safety Act, to actually say how food should be labelled,” Chikanda said.
The proposed reforms could also extend beyond the packaging itself to how unhealthy foods are promoted, particularly as companies increasingly use social media and other digital platforms to reach consumers.
“We want to make sure that people who are now using social media and other various media to advertise and market their foods will also be limited,” she said.
Children at risk
The push comes amid growing concerns over children’s exposure to highly processed and energy-dense foods.
Chikanda warned that children, particularly those of school-going age, are increasingly attracted to snacks and convenience foods that may be high in sugar, salt, fat and other ingredients of concern.
She said frequent consumption of such products could contribute to health problems later in life, including obesity, cardiovascular disease and other non-communicable diseases.
The concern is not unique to Zimbabwe. International research increasingly links diets dominated by ultra-processed foods to poor health outcomes, while researchers have also raised concerns about how such products are formulated, marketed and made widely available.
A recent analysis published in The Milbank Quarterly argued that some ultra-processed foods share characteristics with tobacco products, including product formulation designed to maximise appeal, rapid consumption and repeated intake.
The authors argued that governments should consider stronger regulation of the design and marketing of ultra-processed foods rather than placing the responsibility entirely on individual consumers.
The World Health Organization has similarly identified unhealthy diets as a major driver of non-communicable diseases and has promoted measures including health taxes and other policies aimed at reducing consumption of products high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.
Zimbabwe has already introduced taxes targeting sugar and fast food as part of efforts to address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases.
For Chikanda, however, making healthier choices must begin with ensuring that consumers can easily understand what they are buying.
“If we can make it easier for parents and caregivers to see that this product is high in sugar, high in salt or high in fat, they can make an informed decision,” she said.
The proposed colour-coded system would therefore seek to turn complicated nutritional information into a simple visual warning, allowing consumers to identify potentially unhealthy products before placing them in their shopping baskets.
