Malnutrition remains a significant challenge in South Africa and globally, affecting children and adults. Perm Mthethwa, a researcher in the ARC-Natural Resources and Engineering unit, provides context on Mzansi’s double burden of malnutrition.
Malnutrition is a huge issue in South Africa and the world. It is not just the undernutrition (stunting and wasting) but the coexistence of it with overnutrition (overweight and obesity), known as the “double burden of malnutrition”.
The health implications of malnutrition include a compromised and weakened immune system, susceptibility to a wide range of illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, muscle spasms, diabetes, fatigue, liver issues, anaemia, cancer, inflammation, kidney damage, depression, and impaired brain growth and cognitive development in children.
It is mostly children who are affected by malnutrition. Impaired brain growth and cognitive development affect the child’s school performance due to less developed thinking and reasoning capabilities, which in turn, impacts their performance in the workplace as adults.
This ultimately affects the economic productivity of the company and the country’s GDP. Malnutrition causes about 45% of child deaths in South Africa, with about 1.5 million (1 in 3) children suffering from stunting.
The Covid-19 pandemic further exacerbated food insecurity and malnutrition due to job losses. According to Stats SA, about 2.1 million (11.6%) of South African households reported living in hunger, and 683 221 of these households had children aged five years and younger, with most coming from large cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg.
While agro-processing and food preservation treatments are good initiatives to reduce food losses and provide food for all, all year round for society, deadly dangers are lurking around it. The treatments include freezing, salting, smoking, canning, drying, pickling, pasteurisation, radiation, and chemical additives.
Food poisoning
Food poisoning is a serious issue that results when food is not well prepared or sealed, or it is contaminated during preservation or storage. Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic and caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food.
Many foodborne diseases may lead to long-lasting disability and death. Symptoms can include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 600 million people fall ill from consuming contaminated food every year, and of those, 420 000 die from food poisoning, with 125 000 of those being children under five years of age.
Related stories
Current headlines on food poisoning show the seriousness of the matter. Sometimes food can remain safe for consumption a while after its expiry date. But this should not be misread or misled for the product’s viability well after its expiry date. Changing the expiry date on food products is thus discouraged.
Child deaths from food poisoning
Recently, there have been spikes in child deaths due to food poisoning related to snacks sold in spaza shops all over the country. More than 200 food poisoning-related health cases have been reported in Gauteng, with more than 20 deaths involved.
The most frequent cause of food poisoning related to maize snacks is the aflatoxins from Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, and salmonella. A highly resistant strain of bacterium known as Clostridium botulinum is also one of the deadliest toxins that grow in food, mostly canned food.
Therefore, most food should be treated to inhibit the growth of this kind of bacterium. In rough estimates, to name a few cases, six kids died after eating food bought at a local spaza shop in Soweto, and seven other kids from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) got sick.
In another case, a child, mother, and brother got sick after ingesting snacks brought from a local spaza shop in Alexander, Gauteng, and the child died. Another child died in Qonce, EC, while six fell ill in Sweetwater, KZN.
Collaboration for food safety
Good collaboration between governments, food producers, and consumers is needed to help ensure food safety and stronger food systems.
Food preservation is a good practice to make food available for everyone at all times and reduce losses, but society must be aware of the dangers of possible contamination from processed or preserved food.
The ISO 22000 standard addresses the food safety management practices to ensure food safety for all types of food processes and marketing. Microbiological testing must be performed to test for harmful bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms in processed food products.
This is to ensure food consumption safety for preserved food products. It is important to note that any food can be contaminated at any time, and the community must take note of factors such as expiry date, scent, appearance, and texture of the product before purchase and use. This is especially important because food contamination can be deadly.
- Perm Mthethwa is a researcher in the ARC-Natural Resources and Engineering unit. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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