Staple foods monitoring systems lax: chamber

Acting chief executive Boikanyo Mokgatle told I-Net Bridge/BusinessLIVE on Wednesday, 14 December, that while millers affiliated to the chamber complied with fortification regulations, their products often shared supermarket shelves with the products that are not fortified.

Mokgatle's comments follow a report released by the National Consumer Forum (NCF), which conducted tests that revealed some brands of maize meal still do not contain the level of nutrients that the law requires.

The consumer body sent sample maize meal products from supermarket shelves for laboratory testing and discovered that both the brands it tested fell short of legal requirements.

"Our members have supported the development of staple food fortification programme since inception," said Mokgatle, adding that its members have incurred additional costs in the process of aligning themselves with the regulations and yet still battle for market share with players whose products are not fortified.

"We need level playing fields," he said.

The chamber represents around 30% of the maize milling market.

"We tested for seven of the main micronutrients listed in the regulations and found that there were insufficient amounts of most of these in the products we tested," said NCF chairman Thami Bolani.

These included vitamin A, riboflavin, iron and niacinamide.

Bolani said these results were most disappointing since government had been working with industry for over a decade to ensure achievable levels of fortification in staple foods.

The Department Health first published fortification regulations in 2003, which were followed by the development of staple food fortification programme.

The Department of Trade and Industry then introduced an incentive scheme to encourage compliance.

But Mokgatle said the requirements to qualify for these schemes were too stringent.

Millers were for instance expected to buy machinery and provide valid invoice as proof of purchase and installation.