Buy Zimbabwe Raises Alarm Over Unfortified Foreign Sugar Brands
Buy Zimbabwe, an organization that promotes locally produced goods and services, has raised concerns over seven foreign sugar brands that are being sold in local retail shops without being fortified, which is against the law.
Unfortified sugar is sugar that does not have added nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, that are required by law in some countries to improve the nutritional value of the product. In Zimbabwe, sugar sold in local shops is required by law to be fortified with nutrients approved by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Buy Zimbabwe general manager Mr Alois Burutsa said that the unfortified sugar poses a public health risk and is in contravention of Statutory Instrument (SI) 120 of 2016, which requires sugar sold in local shops to be fortified with nutrients approved by the Ministry of Health and Child Care. The products have undergone compliance tests and have been found to lack the requisite nutrients, and some also do not meet labelling requirements. Burutsa said:
In addition, these brands are also non-compliant on labelling. They have failed to meet the labelling requirement tests.
Some of these brands do not have nutritional information and expiry dates, as prescribed by regulations.
We, therefore, call upon the relevant authorities to ensure the non-compliant brands are removed from the market and should not be imported into Zimbabwe.
They should be taken off our shelves to protect our innocent and unsuspecting consumers.
Buy Zimbabwe is urging the government to take immediate action and remove all non-conforming brands from the shelves to protect consumers and ensure full compliance with food fortificants by all players.
The organisation added that SI 120 was promulgated to address the lack of micronutrients in some food products, which affects the physical and cognitive development of consumers. They urge the public to buy locally manufactured fortified sugar that meets set dietary standards to ensure their safety.
