The Department of Health will strengthen efforts to educate consumers and alert them of ”dubious” weight-loss products, the department announced on Wednesday.
”Weight-loss products are of special concern to the department in that to date — unlike in other countries in Europe and the United States — there is no existing policy framework for regulation,” departmental spokesperson Solly Mabotha said.
He said interventions will include establishing an independent body to help consumers with dietary advice and to blacklist certain products, mostly marketed as ”fat trappers”, ”fat burners” or ”starch blockers”.
The body will also inform consumers on how to identify these products.
Mabotha also said all role players will be consulted in order to pass legislation preventing the marketing of the products, while ”allowing innovation and the marketing of products with a substantiated effect”.
However, he said the department recommends a balanced diet and exercise as the only effective method of preventing obesity, recognised as a global problem.
The diseases resulting from obesity, including heart conditions, ”have become a major burden on the health services of South Africa”, said Mabotha. — Sapa