Health department to enforce strict new rules from March

The Department of Health has issued policy on food labeling and advertising. Manufacturers will have to stick on to them to keep away from serious penalties. The convention bans the use of certain words and phrases telling a food product for nutritional claims such as low fat, fat free and high fiber. In the earlier period, dieticians and consumer guard have indicated concern over often misleading labels and descriptions on food products.The department journal food-labeling regulations in March and they come into effect in March next year, said director of food control Andries Pretorius. He said companies that did not agree could require to be fined up to "hundreds of thousands of rands".

''Food companies were bamboozling consumers with their marketing campaigns and labeling. The ethos behind the regulations is that consumers (must not be) mislead, which is the standard procedure in the food industry at the moment. Consumers are being blatantly bamboozled regarding the supposed health benefits of products," said registered dietician, Gabi Steenkamp

For examples, the phrase ''vitamin-enriched A,D,E'' people assume that it is full of vitamin but it is actually only a tiny bit. Another non- obedient product was Milo chocolate cereal, which has the phrase "nutritious energy cereal" on its packaging. The word "nutritious" will be banned this is because, you are saying Milo cereal is a complete meal in itself; that it is balanced and healthy. Nestlé makes allege of "high fiber" for Milo. From March next year, for a product to be well thought-out "high fiber" it must have 6 g of fiber for every 100 g of cereal, but Milo comes in 4.9 g. Nestlé had ignore to questions about its product claims at the time of going to print.

In my opinion, if they do not stop those tricky advertisements many people will be in danger and later the companies will be uncreditable. Therefore, they should ensure that consumer will get benefits as they said on packages because it not fair for the consumers who are easy to appeal with the attractive phrase. The government should also set up the law against the products that over promote.

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